Back next week
In the meantime: an extremely short take on the local elections
Dear readers, due to some travel plans-gone-somewhat-awry, and other unforeseen circumstances, I’m afraid there will be no newsletter this week. Apologies! There is, however, one story I want to quickly flag. Last weekend, as I’m sure many here will be aware, Italians voted in local elections in two of Italy’s largest regions: Lazio and Lombardia. The results, which were announced on Monday evening, aren’t going to surprise anyone. Right wing candidates, backed by the governing coalition, came to triumph in both regions. In Lazio the winner was Francesco di Rocca, a one-time neo-fascist activist who I wrote about earlier this year; in Lombardia, Attilio Fontana, the Lega candidate, held on to power. Both obtained over 50% of the vote share in their respective races, something most newspapers were quick to label “a landslide result!”
Well…yes. But also no. Mainly no. As in the national elections of September 2022 abstention was, in fact, the real political winner here. Turnout in these elections was an all-time-record-low. Just 41% of voters came out to cast their ballot in Lombardia, and 37.2% in Lazio. So while Meloni might well cheer the result as one that “consolidates the compactness of the centre-right and strengthens the work of the government” the real meaning here is rather more nuanced. On average PD candidates won 36% of the vote, the Five Star Movement 12% and Terzo Polo 10%. In other words, the majority of Italian voters actually remain somewhere on the vague progressive spectrum! Which - if anything - makes it all the more depressing that the leaders and representatives of the centre and left parties have apparently done nothing at all over the past four months to position themselves as viable candidates for power. Meloni and chums may cheer for now, but as a whole, the reality remains bleak. Italians continue to reject the political class in absolute terms: left, right and centre alike. Bad news - I’d say - for all the parties, without exception.
About Me
My name is Jamie Mackay (@JacMackay) and I’m an author, editor and translator based in Florence. I’ve been writing about Italy for a decade for international media including The Guardian, The Economist, Frieze, and Art Review. I launched ‘The Week in Italy’ to share a more direct and regular overview of the debates and dilemmas, innovations and crises that sometimes pass under the radar of our overcrowded news feeds.
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