Why Italian democracy is in good shape

Another country falls for the populist agenda… After the UK, the US, Poland and Hungary, now it’s Italy’s turn to experiment with right-wing policies. After the victory of Macron in France, European leaders hoped the populist tide had turned, but alas, the Italian domino fell as well.

This is more or less the opinion of mainstream foreign opinion leaders, as expressed also in the FT recently. The latter even sees it as the latest sign of liberal democratic decline.

I strongly disagree with this reading.

First of all, although the Lega Nord might fit the populist bill relatively well, the M5S party (which is by far larger in terms of votes) is much harder to classify. Their main organising and binding principle is that it is a grassroots movement, decoupled from the established political class. Given the low public standing of established politicians in Italy, it should come as no surprise they managed to obtain many votes. Ideologically they are fluid, but all in all left-leaning. The difficulty of agreeing on a government and common program between the Lega and M5S illustrates the big differences between the parties.

The Euro-sceptic undertone of the new government reflects genuine and broadly shared frustration with the tight leash Brussels (read Germany) sets for government spending. This has overly constrained Italian government investment during a protracted period of economic weakness. It is quite easy for a government in a country with a booming economy (like Germany and The Netherlands) to argue for fiscal rectitude, but we should not forget that at the time of the introduction of the Euro Germany, not Italy was seen as the sick man of Europe due to chronic economic under-performance.

The lack of trust and understanding between the North of Europe and the South has in my opinion led to the rise of the Lega and M5S parties. Misplaced arrogance and prejudice in the North and poor communication and lack of progress with reform in Italy have eroded the centre ground and spurred the anti-establishment movements.

Instead of crying wolf, Northern Europe should respect the outcome of the elections in Italy for giving a voice to genuine concerns (although arguably not for producing very effective solutions) and see it as a sign liberal democracy is alive and well in Italy and not ossified in a polarised two-party system like in some Anglo-Saxon countries (perhaps explaining the pessimism of the FT...).

The election outcome should be seen as a sign we need to bridge the gap within the EU and find a common fiscal policy framework that inspires trust in all countries, not just in the economies that are experiencing the good times.

Democracy is alive and well in Italy, we just need to continue to take it seriously.