Italy’s general election saw the country elect its first Neo-Fascist Premier since Mussolini in a considerable victory, In which Georgia Meloni of the Brotherhood of Italy Party won 26% of the vote. Right Wing Populist parties have been gaining traction and threatening democratic regimes in Western Europe for decades, but a Neo Fascist victory in a founding EU nation represents a deeply troubling turn towards the extreme.

In Italy’s case, a series of recent unfortunate political events created a vacuum, allowing Meloni and other Right Wing Populists to fill the void. Economic woes have plagued Italy since the Economic Crisis of 2008, and Italian voters’ discontentment with government were  exploited by Far Right Populist parties such as The Five Star Movement and Lega, whose populist, eurosceptic rhetoric propelled their ascension from fringe parties, to major political players. The Five Star Movement’s considerable influence over Italian politics and Government allowed them to create the political crisis in September of 2022 that led to Meloni’s victory in the snap election that took place on the 25th of that month. 

Since then, shock and concern for what may come next has been expressed by EU nations and other Western democracies. For Western European nations, this result serves as an example of what may happen if Populist candidates are not curbed before they are able to entrench themselves within their respective political systems. A lack of effective gatekeeping measures within Italy’s own political system produced an environment that allowed populists such as Meloni to enter the political sphere. The rise of The Five Star Movement over the past decade is an example of this failure. 

The Five Star Movement, established in 2009 as an anti establishment party. Like other populist parties, the Five Star Movement (M5S) promoted policies from both extremes of the political spectrum, for example it has supported a Basic Universal Income, while also being deeply critical of the EU and Italy’s position within it. In the 2013 General Election, M5S was able to win 25.56% of the popular vote, the most of any party in that election, and third most of Parliamentary seats behind the two mainstream center-right and center-left parties(). Rather than blocking the M5S from gaining influence within Government, political elites within mainstream political parties chose to co-opt the party and incorporate it into a coalition government. According to Levitsky & Ziblatt 2018 text How Democracies Die, this is a mistake commonly made by political elites who believe that “the invitation to power would contain the outsider, leading to a restoration of control by mainstream politicians” (Levitsky, Ziblatt 2018). This legitimized M5S as a political force in Italy and the party continued to find electoral success in subsequent years. 

The Five Star Movement’s political dominance is directly related to the rise of Meloni to the premiership. Plagued by the economic crisis created as a result of the Pandemic, the Italian government led by Mario Draghi proposed a bill designed to put an end to the economic strife. Following a statement by former Prime Minister and leader of M5S Guiseppe Conte that the party would withdraw its support from the government if the bill were to proceed, a vote of no confidence was held. M5S and allied parties refused to participate in the vote. Following this, the Italian Parliament was dissolved and the snap election of the 25th of September was held thereafter. Having not been a part of the unity coalition government, Meloni’s Brothers of Italy Party (FDI) was primed to absorb much of the support that had been enjoyed by other major right wing parties such as Lega and M5S. 

While the next Government is still being negotiated, it would appear that the most likely outcome will be a right wing coalition government between FDI, the right-wing Lega ,and the center-right Forza Italia. The implications of the formation of such a government are yet unclear, but whatever they may be the fact remains that the rise of The Brotherhood of Italy party was produced by the lack of effective gatekeeping within the Italian political elite, and the effects of their miscalculation may prove difficult to reverse.