EuroskepticismLeaders of several Euroskeptic parties—(from left) Matteo Salvini of Italy's Northern League, Harald Vilimsky of Austria's Freedom Party, Marine Le Pen of France's National Front, and Geert Wilders of the Dutch Party for Freedom—after a meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels, May 28, 2014.Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Images
Coalition talks dragged on for two inconclusive months, and on May 7 Italian Pres. Sergio Mattarella delivered a televised address urging parties to appoint a nonpartisan caretaker government under the threat of fresh elections. Five Star vowed that it would not take part in a unity technocratic government, and League leader Matteo Salvini called for a new election that would double as a de facto referendum on Italy’s membership in the European Union. In an effort to resolve the impasse, Berlusconi—as head of the right-wing bloc that included the League, Forza Italia, and the Brothers of Italy—gave his blessing to Salvini to pursue negotiations with Five Star. Days later the ban on Berlusconi holding political office was lifted by a Milan appellate court. As talks between Salvini and Five Star leader Luigi Di Maio proceeded, there emerged the possibility of a Euroskeptic, left and right populist coalition that EU officials dubbed the “nightmare scenario.”
The two parties agreed on an administration to be led by Giuseppe Conte, a law professor and political neophyte. On May 27 Mattarella vetoed Conte’s government, however, on the grounds that proposed finance minister Paolo Savona was a Euroskeptic who would seek to “provoke Italy’s exit from the euro.” The move triggered howls of protest from Five Star, with Di Maio calling for Mattarella’s impeachment, and Italian bond yields soared at the prospect of continued political instability. On May 29 Mattarella sought to calm markets by nominating former IMF executive Carlo Cottarelli to serve at the head of a technocratic caretaker government ahead of early elections. Cottarelli was known as “Mr. Scissors” for his reputation as an opponent of public spending, but his appointment failed to assuage investors. In the end, Cottarelli surrendered his mandate after just 48 hours when Five Star and the League again proposed Conte as prime minister at the head of a reshuffled cabinet. Mattarella approved the government on May 31, and Conte was inaugurated the following day. Salvini was named interior minister, and he immediately began working to fulfill his promise to expel migrants from Italy. Di Maio became labour and economic development minister, a post that allowed him to pursue his campaign pledge of enacting a universal basic income scheme in Italy. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Immigration and foreign policy
The economic growth that had begun in the 1980s transformed Italy by the 1990s into a host country for immigration. Emigration from Italy and south-north internal migration had all but disappeared by the 1980s. From the mid-1970s onward, immigrants from all over the world, but in particular from North Africa, the Philippines, and eastern Europe, had begun to appear in the big cities. Most worked in the service sector or in small-time street trading. Italy took a long time to react to this trend, and immigration became a national crisis. By 2000 Italy had more than one million immigrants, many of whom found it difficult to procure documents for legal residence. Racism emerged in Italian society and politics, and immigrants were stereotyped as criminals, just as southern Italians had been in the 1960s. However, this cheap labour was essential to the Italian economy.
In 1993 Italy ratified the Schengen Treaty, which eliminated passport controls between its European member states and mandated rigorous controls for persons arriving from nonmember states. Italy implemented these controls and joined the Schengen zone in 1997. Because of its position at the edge of prosperous western Europe and, after 1997, of the exclusive Schengen zone, Italy played a frontier role in immigration, with immigrants every day attempting the perilous sea crossings from Albania and North Africa despite Italian authorities trying to stop them. In the early 21st century, international attention focused on Lampedusa Island, located some 70 miles (approximately 110 km) from the Tunisian coast. Tens of thousands of prospective immigrants and asylum seekers made the treacherous crossing to the Italian island; hundreds were killed in accidents at sea, and the processing centre on Lampedusa was often filled beyond its capacity. As the flow of immigrants continued in the wake of the Arab Spring, Pope Francis visited the island in July 2013 to bring attention to the issue. The stream of immigrants and refugees quickened to a flood as the Syrian Civil War intensified, with more than 100,000 people seeking asylum in Italy in 2015 alone.
Economic dislocations after the Cold War had brought massive immigration from Albania in particular, especially in 1990 and 1991. Italy sent troops to Albania twice at times of crisis, and the huge boatloads of Albanians arriving on the coast of Puglia became symbols of pressures that some Italians perceived as a threat. Only the first Albanians were welcomed. Thereafter Italy adopted a policy of expulsion and began nightly patrols up and down the coast.
The end of the Cold War and growing European political and economic integration also had combined to erode Italy’s long-standing resistance to overseas military action, as the interventions in Albania demonstrated. In 1999 Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema faced the Kosovo crisis on his doorstep, and, in contrast to Italy’s complete inaction during the four preceding years of war in the Balkans, Italy permitted the use of its bases to bomb targets in Yugoslavia. This intervention, however, proved unpopular in Italy, both on the left and among Catholics.
Italy in the 21st century was far richer and more developed than it had been a hundred years previously. Many problems remained, however, including continuing political instability and corruption, the historic but persistent economic and cultural divisions between the north and the south, and the new challenges of immigration and European economic and political unification. These challenges dominated Italy’s political and economic agenda early in the new century. Martin Clark John Foot The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Citation Information
Article Title: Italy
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 14 August 2019
URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy
Access Date: August 20, 2019
Additional Reading Geography General works
Comprehensive descriptions of many geographic aspects of the country are found in Mario Pinna and Domenico Ruocco (eds.), Italy: A Geographical Survey (1980). Rinn S. Shinn (ed.), Italy: A Country Study, 2nd ed. (1987), is a comprehensive survey of both the geography and the history of the country. People
National, social, and demographic characteristics of the country, with a look at regional differences, are discussed in David Willey, Italians (1984); William Murray, The Last Italian: Portrait of a People (1991); and David I. Kertzer and Richard P. Saller (eds.), The Family in Italy from Antiquity to the Present (1991). Other works include John Agnew, Place and Politics in Modern Italy (2002); and Tobias Jones, The Dark Heart of Italy, rev. ed. (2007). Economy
Broad surveys are offered in Peter Groenewegen and Joseph Halevi (eds.), Italian Economics Past and Present (1983); and Russell King, Italy (1987). Russell King, The Industrial Geography of Italy (1985) analyzes the location of industries. Raffaella Y. Nanetti, Growth and Territorial Policies: The Italian Model of Social Capitalism (1988), focuses on regional disparities and the role of local government in economic development. Alan B. Mountjoy, The Mezzogiorno, 2nd ed. (1982), briefly reviews economic conditions in southern Italy. Other special studies are Pino Arlacchi, Mafia Business: The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. by Martin Ryle (1986; originally published in Italian, 1983); Peter Lange and Marino Regini (eds.), State, Market, and Social Regulation: New Perspectives on Italy (1989; originally published in Italian, 1987); F. Pyke, G. Becattini, and W. Sengenberger (eds.), Industrial Districts and Inter-Firm Co-operation in Italy (1990); and Vera Zamagni, The Economic History of Italy, 1860–1990 (1993). Russell L. King Paola E. Signoretta Government and society