by Crispian Balmer and Angelo Amante
ROME (Reuters) – The far-right Fratelli d’Italia party has demanded the resignation of the Italian government after its strong score in the local elections and the disavowal inflicted on members of the ruling coalition.
The only party in the right-wing alliance it forms with Forza Italia and the League to have refused to join Mario Draghi’s government of national unity last year, Fratelli d’Italia has taken advantage of its freedom of speech at the polls, going from 4.4% of the vote in the last legislative elections in 2018 to 22% of voting intentions today at the national level.
On Sunday, in municipal elections in a thousand cities, the party led by Giorgia Meloni was clearly ahead of its right-wing allies.
Conversely, the nationalists of the League and the populists of the Five-Star Movement (M5S), which support the government, have suffered serious failures which illustrate the difficulty of normalization for the radical parties.
“We have a government which must make important choices, which will decide the destiny of the people, and which is supported by a (parliamentary) majority which hardly represents anyone anymore”, declared Giorgia Meloni. “We can’t pretend nothing happened.”
Fratelli d’Italia notably outstripped Matteo Salvini’s League in many of its northern Italian strongholds, weakening the fiery nationalist leader who admitted having great difficulty justifying to his voters the fact of sharing power with his historical adversaries of the Democratic Party (PD, centre-left).
NOBODY WANTS EARLY ELECTIONS
“You have to have a sense of responsibility to govern… even if it is difficult to participate in a government with the PD”, commented Matteo Salvini on Tuesday.
The electoral rout was even more dramatic for the M5S, dropping from 33% of the vote in 2018 to less than 5% in many cities.
The populist party has never shone in the municipal elections but its score is particularly alarming, as recognized by its leader Giuseppe Conte, who nevertheless said he was determined in an interview with La Stampa to remain within the coalition. governmental.
Even if the League and the M5S continue to support Mario Draghi, political analyst Massimiliano Panarari expects them to make life difficult for him by vigorously defending their ideas to reassure voters in view of the upcoming national elections.
“We are heading towards a period of increased instability,” said this professor of political communication at the Unimercatorum University in Rome.
“The only lifeline (for the government) is that neither of these two leaders wants early elections because they would be assured of defeat,” he said.
The next legislative elections in Italy are scheduled for 2023.
(Report by Crispian Balmer and Angelo Amante, French version Tangi Salaün, edited by Sophie Louet)