Italy General Election 25 September 2022
The Italian Republic is a multiparty parliamentary democracy with a bicameral parliament consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The constitution vests executive authority in the Council of Ministers, headed by a prime minister whose official title is president of the Council of Ministers. The president of the republic is the head of state and nominates the prime minister after consulting with political party leaders in parliament. Parliamentary elections 25 September 2022 were considered free and fair. Members of parliament and regional representatives elect the president of the republic; the last such election was held in January 2022.
Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: violence or threats of violence against journalists; crimes involving violence and threats of violence targeting members of national, racial, and ethnic minorities; crimes, violence, and threats of violence motivated by antisemitism; and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons.
Domestic and European institutions criticized the slow pace of the judicial process. The Ministry of Justice reported that during the judicial year 2020/2021, the period between a criminal being charged and the start of the corresponding trial was on average 439 days. Additionally, it took an average of 956 days for a case to arrive at the court of appeals from the time of the initial indictment.
Pretrial detention that exceeded the legal time limit of up to six years, and trial delays, were problems. Authorities normally adhered to the maximum term for pretrial detention; in no case did it equal or exceed the maximum sentence for the alleged crime. According to independent analysts and magistrates, the large number of drug and immigration cases awaiting trial, the lack of judicial remedies, the high number of foreign detainees, and insufficient digitalization of trial records resulted in delays. In some cases, detainees could not be placed under house arrest because they had no legal residence or because there was a shortage of resources, including officers, judges, and administrative staff.
According to the NGO Reporters without Borders, by 2022 there was significant hostility towards reporters and approximately 20 journalists – mostly in Rome and the South – received around-the-clock police protection because of serious threats or murder attempts from criminal groups. In Rome, reporters were at times harassed by neo-Fascist activists, and in Northern regions by anarchists and neo-Nazi groups.
The law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status, and the government has established a system for providing protection for refugees. By mid-December 2021, a total of 63,062 seaborne irregular migrants had entered the country, compared to 32,919 during the same period in 2020. The increase, together with the fear of possible COVID-19 transmission, affected the ability of authorities to provide housing and other services to migrants and asylum seekers.
Amnesty International and other NGOs accused the government of failing to protect migrants when, in February 2021, it renewed with Libya the 2017 memorandum of understanding on illegal immigration. Italian authorities sometimes cooperated with the Libyan coast guard to seize vessels carrying migrants in Libyan waters to return them to Libya. Civil society, including UNHCR, did not consider Libya a “safe country”. The government uncovered corruption and organized crime in the management of resources allotted for asylum seekers and refugees.
The early elections were called by the President following the resignation of the Prime Minister after three main government coalition parties effectively withdrew their political support for the government. The elections took place against the backdrop of rising inflation and energy prices, and the consequences of the health and social crises caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Voters elected 400 members of the Chamber of Deputies and 200 Senators for a five-year term through a mixed electoral system.
The elections to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate were competitive and offered voters a wide choice of political alternatives, with civil and political freedoms respected. The media provided broad and varied campaign coverage and created conditions for citizens to make an informed choice. The elections were conducted in a professional and effective manner, and the election administration enjoyed a high level of public confidence.
The campaign was competitive and more vibrant on social networks and television, though its intensity was impacted by the summer holidays. The political discourse was to a large degree framed by personal disagreements between political leaders. The tone used in campaigns was moderate, albeit harsher on social networks. Campaign messages focused on energy prices, the increased cost of living and socioeconomic recovery. The conduct of the campaign online is not fully regulated; however, positively, several online platforms developed self-regulatory initiatives covering the electoral related content.
Election campaigns can be financed from party funds, individual and corporate contributions. The law sets limits for donations and expenditures and obliges candidates and political parties to submit postelection reports on their finances. There are no provisions for interim campaign finance reporting contrary to international good practice and prior ODIHR recommendations. The responsible oversight entities are in charge of auditing campaign finance reports of parties and candidates and may impose sanctions for violations. The results of campaign finance audit are sometimes published long after the elections, diminishing transparency.
The media landscape is pluralistic, and voters were provided with a wide range of information enabling them make an informed choice. While the legislation guarantees freedom of expression and media, defamation remains criminalized contrary to international standards. Frequent cases of intimidation and threats against journalists, including online, a concentration of media ownership, and declining job security, exacerbated by strategic lawsuits targeting investigative journalism, are also of concern. The legislation requires equitable coverage of election contestants. The media regulatory bodies actively and systematically monitored compliance of public and private broadcasters with the legislation.
The 2018 parliamentary elections resulted in 11 political parties gaining parliamentary representation. The political party environment is fluid, with new parties emerging, joining forces in coalitions and falling out before elections anew. Following two governments led by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, the former president of European Central Bank Mario Draghi and his government of “national unity”, with “technocrats” and appointees from both the centre-left and the centre-right parties, received a parliamentary vote of confidence in February 2021. The political party Brothers of Italy remained in the opposition. In the outgoing parliament, 181 members (30 per cent) of the Chamber of Deputies (hereinafter MPs) and 118 Senators (37 per cent) were women.
On 14 July 2022, the Five Star Movement revoked the support to the government regarding a decree aiming to provide economic stimulus amid the ongoing energy and economic challenges. After various efforts to preserve the coalition, Prime Minister Draghi resigned, and on 21 July, President Sergio Mattarella dissolved the parliament and called early parliamentary elections for 25 September, bringing elections some six months forward.
The decision to hold the elections in autumn was criticized by many political parties and other electoral stakeholders, who referred to particular difficulties to perform a considerable amount of administrative tasks, to collect signatures in support of candidates and conduct the campaign over the summer. For these elections, three main centre-right political parties, the Brothers of Italy, the League and Forza Italia, formed a coalition, with Giorgia Meloni from the Brothers of Italy as the de facto coalition leader. This coalition agreed that the party winning the most seats would propose the Prime Minister.
On the other end of the political spectrum, a centre-left electoral coalition led by the Democratic Party emerged, with its chairperson Enrico Letta as the effective coalition leader. Political parties Italia Viva and Azione created a so-called “third pole” aiming to attract votes from the centrist electorate. The Five Star Movement, the largest parliamentary party after the 2018 elections, lost a number of its members following the fall of the government in July 2022 and stood separately. A number of new parties, including spin-offs from established parliamentary parties, also participated in the contest.
The elections took place against a backdrop of rising inflation and energy prices, and consequences of the health and social crises caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The election campaign started after the dissolution of the parliament on 22 July. The pace and intensity of the campaign were impacted by the summer holidays; nevertheless, it became more active in the last weeks before election day.
Rallies and gatherings require notification, and all campaign materials must include an identification disclaimer. Municipalities allocate the public sites for posting campaign materials. The campaign ended on midnight of 23 September. The campaign silence was generally well respected in traditional media. On social networks, which are not subject to formal campaign silence rules, a number of candidates and political parties engaged in active campaigning and generated active response from the public and other electoral contestants in the silence period.
Contestants were able to conduct their campaigns freely, and fundamental freedoms of peaceful assembly, association and expression were respected. The campaign was competitive, and a wide range of parties and candidates ensured a broad choice of political alternatives for voters. Contestants used a variety of outreach methods, including small-scale gatherings, person-to-person canvassing and most notably social networks.
Occasional larger rallies were organized during the last days of the campaign. Some candidates alleged damage to their campaign equipment, attempts at disruptions of rallies and raised concerns about insults directed at their activists by supporters of the opposing camps.
Much of the political discourse was framed by personal disagreements between leaders of political parties within both leading coalitions. The main contesting camps presented the elections as an important milestone determining the country’s future geopolitical orientation. The centre-left parties continuously cautioned citizens about the consequences of a shift to the far-right even equating it to the “return of fascism to Italy” and Italy’s geopolitical isolation in the European Union and other international bodies, should the centre-right parties, in particular the Brothers of Italy, form the government.54 The leaders of the centre-right electoral coalition dismissed these claims as smear tactics. Overall, the campaign was calm and its tone was moderate. Nevertheless, instances of derogatory rhetoric towards national minorities were observed.
Campaign messages focused on the energy crisis and the increased cost of living, economic development and recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, migration, as well as basic income measures introduced by the previous government. The impact of the ongoing geopolitical and security situation on Italy’s economy as well as the country’s positioning in the European Union were also discussed. Foreign interference in the election campaign was also a part of the discourse. On social networks, the rhetoric was harsher, with leaders of main coalitions expressing strong criticism of their opponents. Social networks were mostly used for immediate commentary on campaign developments and paid political advertising.
For many Italians, the economy, jobs and the rising cost of living are the biggest concerns. Food banks report a sharp rise in the number of people needing help just to survive. In Italy’s south, economic prospects have long lagged behind the richer north. Antonio Mela, a retired barman from the city of Salerno in Campania, started visiting the local soup kitchen run by the Catholic charity Caritas after the price of food increased sharply in recent months.
The efforts to promote women’s participation in political life have so far not been fully effective. The newly elected parliament has 129 women (32 per cent) in the Chamber of Deputies and 69 (34 per cent) among the Senators. There are no legal provisions for gender composition of election management bodies. Gender-sensitive topics, including abortion rights and same-sex partnership, were widely discussed throughout the campaign.
With a few notable exceptions, women did not feature prominently in the campaign. Gender-sensitive topics, including abortion rights and same-sex partnership, were widely discussed throughout the campaign, but existing legislation on these issues was not openly challenged by major parties or coalitions. The leader of Brothers of Italy Ms. Meloni campaigned under the slogan “God, homeland, family” calling for more efforts for the preservation of traditional family values and Christian identity.
The outcome was most commonly attributed to Giorgia Meloni’s exceptional campaign and her party’s positive reputation as the only right-wing party not to have entered coalitions with its political rivals on different parts of the spectrum. What drew the line between FdI and the rest of the coalition were four issues in particular: the construction of new gasifiers, bringing Italy closer to a presidential system, reducing the powers of the judiciary, an abolishing green renovation grants for home-owners (this policy suffered from false claims and abuse). Meanwhile the other parties of the coalition performed more strongly on classic conservative issues such as keeping euthanasia illegal, limiting abortion, tax forgiveness, and reducing access to welfare by immigrants.
Two Eurosceptic parties received the majority of votes, while the pro-European ruling Democratic Party (PD) did not manage to receive even 20 percent of the vote. Matteo Salvini's far-right Lega (formerly Lega Nord), a party which criticizes EU policies and has anti-immigrant views, surpassed its main coalition ally, the establishment Forza Italia party of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, with almost 18 percent of the vote. The center-right coalition, which also comprises right-wing Brothers of Italy and the Us with Italy party, was winning with 37.5 percent of the vote.
The center-right coalition, consisting of Lega, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, right-wing Brothers of Italy and the Us with Italy party, won 37.48 percent of the vote in the upper house and 36.96 percent in the lower house. Lega won more than 17 percent of seats in each chamber of the Italian parliament. The anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) is leading with over 32 percent — the best result achieved by any individual party. However, in order to have the right to form the country's government, the coalition should receive at least 40 percent of the vote.
The right-wing alliance of political parties won the highest share of the vote in the Italian general election of 2022, at 43.7 percent of votes in the Chamber of Deputies, and 44.02 percent in the Italian senate. This coalition consists of four individual parties, with the largest of these being the Brothers of Italy, led by Giorgia Meloni. As the result of the elections, a woman became the Prime Minister for the first time.
New Italian Prime Minister, Leader of Brothers of Italy Giorgia Meloni on 21 October 2022 announced the composition of her government. Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Lega party, became the infrastructure minister and the deputy prime minister. Antonio Tajani, the former president of the European Parliament, became Italy’s new foreign minister. The prefect of Rome, Matteo Piantedosi, is se to become the interior minister. Giancarlo Giorgetti from the Lega party is named the finance minister, while Guido Crosetto, a co-founder of Brothers of Italy, will head the defense ministry.
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