The Emilia-Romagna Election: What Its Result Means For Italy’s National Government
Last weekend, Matteo Salvini’s populist, right-wing Lega Nord (Northern League) party lost an election for the governorship of Northern Italy’s Emilia-Romagna province, prompting a flurry of news coverage and speculation about the decline of populism in Italy.
Who is Matteo Salvini, and why was this regional election such a big deal?
Matteo Salvini is the leader of the right-wing Lega Nord party. A hard-line Euro-skeptic, Salvini holds very critical views of the European Union (EU), especially for its (in his view) lenient treatment of asylum seekers. Until August of last year, Salvini was one of two deputy prime ministers in the cabinet of Giuseppe Conte. In late August, however, he was ousted from this position after trying to get Italy’s coalition government to force an election (which would have given the Northern League an outright majority in parliament). After this attempt, his rivals responded by creating a new coalition between the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S) and the center-left Democratic Party, without the League. Salvini touted the January 26th election in Emilia-Romagna as a referendum on whether he should lead Italy and saw the election as an opportunity to bring down the fragile coalition between the PD and M5S. With the popularity of the Northern League having risen in Emilia-Romagna in the months before the election, Salvini wanted to see how much the national government had the confidence of the electorate.
Introducing the Sardines: A grassroots campaign movement fighting against populism in Italy
In 2014, the turnout in Emilia-Romagna’s regional election was 37.7%, but this year, that number jumped to 67.7%. This spike is almost certainly due to the Sardines, without whom the PD may well have lost control. The Sardines are a progressive social movement that formed just months ago, in November 2019. The group — named after the sardine because the fish symbolizes solidarity and pacifism — encourages citizens to assemble at local piazzas in support of progressive causes. Just last week in Bologna, 30,000 people showed up for a free concert hosted by the Sardines to challenge Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.
While the group is not an official party, its leaders are toying with the idea of evolving the movement into one in the future. However, rather than representing a revival of the old left, the Sardines more appropriately represent the rebirth of a culture of political participation.
What does the result of this regional election mean on a national level?
Emilia-Romagna has historically had a string of leftist governments since the end of the Second World War, and the incumbent governor likely won the election for his ability to attract the province’s existing base of leftist voters. The mobilization of voters through groups like the Sardines is promising because it shows a push against populism. However, in spite of this provincial victory, Italy’s national government is still fragile and will likely not hold together for long.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, austerity-stricken rural and provincial towns have been drifting rightwards — and at a national level, this doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon. In addition, Salvini’s right wing messaging still dominates the news and social media, and, at a national level, polls suggest Salvini’s party is well-positioned to form a majority government in coalition with other rightwing parties. So, while the Emilia-Romagna election has slowed the tide of populism, the result is not as promising for Italy as it may seem.
Sources:
https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/01/30/regional-elections-in-italy-buttress-the-government
