Two months of political maneuvering ensued, and no clear consensus emerged. Grillo rejected a proposed alliance with the PD, caustically characterizing Bersani as a “dead man talking,” and a “grand coalition” that would have united the forces of Bersani and Berlusconi failed to materialize. Uncertainty gripped Italy, and presidential elections held in April 2013 initially did little to settle matters. A pair of candidates advanced by Bersani—former Senate speaker Franco Marini and former prime minister Romano Prodi—were resoundingly defeated when PD delegates staged an internal rebellion. In the wake of these reverses, Bersani announced that he would resign as leader of the PD upon the election of a president. In the sixth round of balloting, the PD, Berlusconi’s PdL, and Monti’s supporters aligned behind incumbent Pres. Giorgio Napolitano, and he was reelected by a wide margin.
The 87-year-old Napolitano became the first Italian president in history to win a second term. Napolitano tapped Enrico Letta, a prominent figure within the PD’s moderate wing, to form a coalition government. Letta was tasked with the formation of a cross-party cabinet that would resolve the political deadlock that had been afflicting Italy since the February 2013 general elections.
The stability of Letta’s government was threatened in August 2013 when Berlusconi’s conviction for tax fraud was upheld by the Supreme Court of Cassation. The decision marked the first time that Berlusconi had been definitively convicted of a crime. In addition to a one-year prison term, the PdL leader faced an additional political ban of five years; that part of his sentence, however, was suspended, pending review by a lower court. A parliamentary committee was convened to determine whether Berlusconi should be stripped of his Senate seat, but, days before a scheduled vote on the matter, Berlusconi withdrew the support of the PdL from the ruling coalition. Financial markets recoiled at the news, and Letta criticized the move as irresponsible. Berlusconi’s efforts to topple the government backfired, however, when a sizable PdL contingent indicated that it would support Letta. Facing a possible rebellion within his own party, Berlusconi dropped his challenge, and on October 2, 2013, Letta easily survived a vote of confidence.
Berlusconi relaunched the PdL as Forza Italia, while the moderate faction that had supported Letta broke away under Angelino Alfano to form the New Centre Right (Nuovo Centrodestra; NCD) party. Berlusconi moved Forza Italia into opposition, but Letta successfully weathered another vote of confidence on November 26, 2013. The following day Berlusconi was officially expelled from the Senate, but, as Forza Italia leader, he remained an influential figure in Italian politics. Meanwhile, Letta continued his efforts to revive Italy’s struggling economy, and he endured another round of confidence votes in December 2013 as he brought forth a budget that cut spending and repealed an unpopular housing tax that had been introduced by the Monti government. Dissension within the PD about the pace of reform led to a leadership struggle in February 2014, however, as Florence mayor Matteo Renzi called an intraparty vote to challenge Letta. PD members overwhelmingly backed Renzi, and Letta submitted his resignation to Napolitano on February 13. Renzi was given approval to form a government, and he was sworn in as prime minister on February 22, 2014. At age 39 he was the youngest person in Italian history to hold that office. The migrant crisis and the growth of populist movements The Renzi and Gentiloni governments
Renzi immediately embarked on a bold reform program in an attempt to revitalize Italy’s stagnant labour market and to stimulate economic growth. While the IMF applauded the move, Renzi faced opposition from Italy’s labour unions as well as from members of his own party. Italy’s economy emerged from recession in 2015, but it still lagged behind the rest of the euro area, and unemployment remained stubbornly high. Meanwhile, Europe’s migrant crisis continued to loom as a pressing foreign and domestic issue for Renzi’s administration. Thousands of refugees died attempting the hazardous Mediterranean crossing in barely seaworthy craft, and Italy’s Operation Mare Nostrum, which had rescued more than 150,000 migrants in 2014, had been terminated in October of that year because of a lack of support from other EU members. After an estimated 800 people were killed in a single shipwreck in April 2015, the EU voted to dramatically expand its multinational Triton sea rescue operation.
Renzi, MatteoMatteo Renzi at a press conference in Rome, February 2014.Rex Features/AP Images
The refugee crisis sparked a political showdown for Renzi, as opposition politicians characterized it as “an invasion” and suggested housing the migrants on abandoned oil rigs off the Libyan coast. Renzi’s popularity declined as populist parties such as the Northern League and Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement capitalized on anti-immigrant sentiment and the slow pace of economic recovery. Renzi staked his political future on a constitutional referendum that he claimed would enhance the stability of Italy’s central government, which had changed hands 63 times since World War II. Passage of the referendum would see the power of the Senate, the legislature’s upper house, significantly reduced, and Renzi claimed that the changes would make the legislative process more efficient. Critics countered that disproportionate power would accrue to the prime minister’s office, and Renzi vowed to resign if the measure did not pass. On December 4, 2016, voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposal. Renzi announced his resignation, and Grillo, who was the most visible face in the “no” campaign, called for snap elections to be held.
Forgoing fresh elections, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni attempted to form a new government. On December 13, 2016, Gentiloni handily won a vote of confidence in the lower house, and his government was confirmed by the Senate, albeit by a narrower margin, the following day. Gentiloni’s term was marked by political stability and modest economic growth, but the governing PD could boast relatively little public support to show for it. Strong anti-immigrant feeling boosted the fortunes of far-right and populist parties, but a new election law passed in October 2017 changed the allocation of parliamentary seats in a way that favoured mainstream parties and those that could build effective coalitions. The Five Star Movement, which had consistently ruled out a governing alliance with other parties, claimed that the law had been passed by the political establishment in an attempt to keep them out of power. In December 2017, with the PD having completed its five-year term, Gentiloni dissolved parliament ahead of general elections that were scheduled to be held in March 2018. The victory of populist parties
On March 4, 2018, Italians went to the polls and delivered a sharp rebuke to traditional parties. The Five Star Movement was the clear winner, claiming nearly one-third of the vote, but it lacked an obvious path to forming a coalition government. Support for both the ruling PD and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia plummeted; although the PD secured just enough votes to theoretically forge a coalition with Five Star, representatives from both parties adamantly ruled out such a possibility. The League, the Euroskeptic anti-immigration successor to the secessionist Northern League, captured a stunning 18 percent of the vote. This result was especially remarkable because support for the League was largely confined to a relatively narrow band north of the Po River. Also gaining representation was the Brothers of Italy, a descendant of the neofascist National Alliance.