Voting intention in the parliamentary elections in Italy 2018
Anti-establishment and right-wing coalition
The results of the election confirmed the leading position of Movimento 5 Stelle and the centre-right block. Over one-third of the citizens’ votes went to The Five Star Movement, whereas about 17 percent of Italians stamped a cross in the voting square of Lega Nord. The support for Partito Democratico turned out lower than predicted by the polls and the party scored 18.7 percent in the ballots. Since no political group reached the majority requested to create the government, the leaders of Five Stars and Lega begun negotiations on a coalition. After about three-month-long discussions the parties came to an agreement and a populist Italian government under the leadership of the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was sworn in on June 1, 2018.
Clouds of populism over Europe
In the recent years, populism has been gathering steam across the European continent. In 2018, the strongest populist voice could be heard from Hungary, Greece and Poland, where the share of population voting for populist parties reached more than 51 percent. However, the trend has been gaining ground not only in some particular countries – the number of Europeans living in a country with at least one populist in the cabinet increased over thirteen times between 1998 and 2018.