Historic Breakthrough of Eurosceptics and the Far Right in the Italian Elections

The historic breakthrough of protest parties, eurosceptics, and the far right, who received a record number of votes in Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Italy, has disrupted the traditional power division and plunged the country into political uncertainty.

“For the first time in Europe, anti-establishment forces are winning,” states an editorial comment in the daily La Stampa. “The European Union will have a bad evening,” commented Marine Le Pen, president of the French National Front, on Twitter on Sunday evening.

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She was not mistaken, as it seems according to the first partial results and estimates from Italian television. The coalition consisting of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, the League, and the small party Italian Brothers is certainly receiving approximately 37 percent of the votes, according to partial results from two-thirds of the polling stations.

However, within the coalition, the League led by Matteo Salvini, a eurosceptic and anti-immigrant formation, is in charge, an ally of Marine Le Pen in Europe. And if this alliance wins in terms of mandates, which seemed out of reach according to partial results, Matteo Salvini, who promised to deport hundreds of thousands of “illegal” immigrants, would have the right to demand the position of prime minister.

The Five Star Movement is the strongest party in Italy

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) is achieving a historic breakthrough, becoming the strongest party in Italy with approximately 32 percent, following the Brexit victory in the United Kingdom and Donald Trump in the USA.

Now “everyone will have to talk to us,” stated one of its leaders, Alessandro Di Battista, contentedly, after a campaign focused against corruption and the Italian political “caste.”

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“Italians first, Stop the invasion,” election posters at the League’s headquarters in Milan reminded on Sunday of the major themes of 44-year-old Alessandro Di Battista throughout the campaign, from the north to the south of the peninsula. “My first comment is: thank you!” wrote the League leader on Twitter around midnight.

Silvio Berlusconi, who presented himself in Brussels as the only fortress against populists and forces against the euro, did not achieve the expected result in the elections. Nigel Farage, former head of UKIP, the pro-Brexit party in the UK, congratulated his “colleagues” from M5S on Twitter.

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The movement founded by comedian Beppe Grillo in 2009 has already surprised by winning 25 percent of the votes in the previous parliamentary elections in 2013, and it is guaranteed a central place in the future parliament.

The Democratic Party (PD, center-left) of Matteo Renzi confirmed a poor result in the elections that had been predicted in polls, with less than 20 percent, half of the result achieved in the 2014 European elections.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella will have to entrust the mandate to form a government in the coming weeks to a person he deems capable of securing a majority in parliament.