Politics of Italy Sistema politico italiano | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Polity type | Unitaryparliamentaryrepublic |
| Constitution | Constitution of Italy |
| Legislative branch | |
| Name | Parliament |
| Type | Bicameral |
| Meeting place | Palazzo Madama Palazzo Montecitorio |
| Upper house | |
| Name | Senate |
| Presiding officer | Ignazio La Russa,President of the Senate |
| Lower house | |
| Name | Chamber of Deputies |
| Presiding officer | Lorenzo Fontana,President of the Chamber of Deputies |
| Executive branch | |
| Head of state | |
| Title | President |
| Currently | Sergio Mattarella |
| Appointer | Parliament |
| Head of government | |
| Title | Prime Minister |
| Currently | Giorgia Meloni |
| Appointer | President |
| Cabinet | |
| Name | Council of Ministers |
| Current cabinet | Meloni Cabinet |
| Leader | Prime Minister |
| Appointer | President |
| Headquarters | Palazzo Chigi |
| Ministries | 21 |
| Judicial branch | |
| Name | Judiciary |
| Supreme Court of Cassation | |
| Chief judge | Giovanni Mammone |
| Constitutional Court | |
| Chief judge | Giovanni Amoroso |
| Part of thePolitics series |
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Thepolitics of Italy are conducted through aparliamentary republic with amulti-party system.Italy has been ademocratic republic since 2 June 1946, whenthe monarchy was abolished bypopular referendum and aconstituent assembly, formed by the representatives of all theanti-fascist forces that contributed to the defeat of Nazi and Fascist forces during theliberation of Italy, was elected to draft aconstitution, which was promulgated on 1 January 1948.
Executive power is exercised by theCouncil of Ministers, which is led by thePrime Minister, officially referred to as "President of the Council" (Presidente del Consiglio).Legislative power is vested primarily in thetwo houses ofParliament and secondarily in the Council of Ministers, which can introduce bills and holds the majority in both houses. Thejudiciary isindependent of the executive and the legislative branches. It is headed by theHigh Council of the Judiciary, a body presided over by thePresident, who is thehead of state, though this position is separate from all branches. The current president isSergio Mattarella, and the current prime minister isGiorgia Meloni.
TheEconomist Intelligence Unit rated Italy as a "flawed democracy" in 2024.[1]:16 According to the 2025V-Dem Democracy indices Italy was the 30th most liberal democratic country in the world.[2] A high degree of fragmentation and instability, leading to often short-livedcoalition governments, is characteristic of Italian politics.[3][4] Since the end ofWorld War II in 1945, Italy has had 69 governments, at an average of one every 1.11 years.[5]
TheItalian constitution is the result of the work of theConstituent Assembly, which was formed by the representatives of all theanti-fascist forces that contributed to the defeat of Nazi and Fascist forces during theliberation of Italy.[6] Article 1 of the Italian constitution states:[7]
Italy is a democratic Republic, founded on labour. Sovereignty belongs to the people and is exercised by the people in the forms and within the limits of the Constitution
— Article 1 of the Constitution of Italy
By stating that Italy is ademocratic republic, the article solemnly declares the results of theconstitutional referendum which took place on 1 June 1946. TheState is not a hereditary property of theruling monarch, but it is instead aRes Publica, belonging to everyone.
The people who are called to temporarily administer the republic are not owners, but servants; and the governed are notsubjects, butcitizens. And thesovereignty, that is the power to make choices that involve the entire community, belongs to the people, in accordance with the concept of ademocracy, from the Greekdemos (people) andkratìa (power). However, this power is not to be exercisedarbitrarily, but in the forms and within the limits established by therule of law.
As thehead of state, thePresident of Italy, officially denoted as President of the Italian Republic, represents national unity, and guarantees that Italian politics comply with theConstitution. The president serves as a point of connection between thethree branches of the government, but has got considerably less powers than those previously given to theKing of Italy. The President of Italy is thecommander-in-chief of theItalian Armed Forces and chairs theHigh Council of the Judiciary. A president's term of office lasts for seven years.[7]
The President of Italy is elected by anelectoral college of minimum 658 members (according to the number ofsenators for life). It comprises both chambers of the Italian Parliament—theChamber of Deputies and theSenate of the Republic—meeting injoint session, combined with 58 special electors appointed by theregional councils of the 20regions of Italy. Three representatives come from each region (save for theAosta Valley, which due to its small size only appoints one), so as to guarantee representation for localities and minorities.
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With article 48 of theConstitution, which guarantees theright to vote, the people exercise their power through theirelected representatives in theParliament.[7] TheParliament has abicameral system, and consists of theChamber of deputies and theSenate, elected every five years.[8] The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical functions, but do so separately.
TheChamber of Deputies, the lower house of the bicameral Italian Parliament, has 400 members, of which 392 are elected from Italian constituencies and 8 from Italian citizens living abroad. Members of the Chamber of Deputies are styledThe Honourable (Italian:Onorevole)[9] and meet atPalazzo Montecitorio inRome.
TheSenate of the Republic, the upper house of the bicameral Italian Parliament, has 200 members, of which 196 are elected from Italian constituencies and 4 from Italian citizens living abroad. In addition, there is a variable number (currently 6) ofsenators for life (senatori a vita), either appointed by the President of the Republic or rightfully so as former Presidents of the Republic. Members of the Senate are styledSenator orThe Honourable Senator (Italian:Onorevole Senatore)[10] and meet atPalazzo Madama inRome.
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TheConstitution establishes the Government ofItaly as composed of the president of the council (Prime Minister of Italy) and ministers. ThePresident of Italy appoints the prime minister and, on their proposal, the ministers that form itscabinet.[7]
ThePrime Minister of Italy, officially the President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic,[11] is thehead of government of theItalian Republic. The Prime Minister of Italy must have the confidence of theItalian Parliament to stay in office. The Prime Minister of Italy is the president of theCouncil of Ministers which holds executive power and the position is similar to those in most otherparliamentary systems. The formalItalian order of precedence lists the office as being, ceremonially, the fourth-highest Italian state office after the president and the heads of the legislative chambers.
TheCouncil of Ministers is the principal executive organ of theGovernment of Italy. It comprises the President of the council (thePrime Minister of Italy), all theministers, and the undersecretary to the President of the council. Deputy ministers (Italian:viceministri) and junior ministers (Italian:sottosegretari) are part of the government, but are not members of the Council of Ministers.
Thelaw of Italy has a plurality of sources of production. These are arranged in a hierarchical scale, under which the rule of a lower source cannot conflict with the rule of an upper source (hierarchy of sources).[12] TheConstitution of 1948 is the main source.[13]
TheConstitution states thatjustice is administered in the name of the people and thatjudges are subject only to thelaw.[7] So thejudiciary is a branch that is completely autonomous and independent ofall other branches of power, even though theMinister of Justice is responsible for the organization and functioning of those services involved withjustice and has the power to originate disciplinary actions againstjudges, which are then administered by theHigh Council of the Judiciary, presided over by thePresident.[7]
Thejudiciary of Italy is based onRoman law, theNapoleonic Code and laterstatutes. It is based on a mix of theadversarial andinquisitorialcivil law systems, although theadversarial system was adopted in the Appeal Courts in 1988. Appeals are treated almost as new trials, and three degrees of trial are present. The third is a legitimating trial.[14]
In November 2014, Italy accepted the compulsory jurisdiction of theInternational Court of Justice.[15]
Before 2021, the minimum voting age for all elections was 18 years old, aside for Senate elections, where the minimum voting age was 25 years old. Following the approval of Constitutional Law No. 1/2021, the minimumvoting age for the Senate of the Republic became the same as for the Chamber of Deputies (18 years old and no longer 25). The2022 Italian general election was the first one in which both chambers had identical electoral bodies.[16]
| Coalition | Party | Seats | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Centre-right coalition | Brothers of Italy | 119 | 29.7 | ||
| League | 66 | 16.5 | |||
| Forza Italia | 45 | 11.2 | |||
| Us Moderates | 7 | 1.7 | |||
| Total seats | 237 | 59.2 | |||
| Centre-left coalition | Democratic Party-IDP | 57 | 14.4 | ||
| Greens and Left Alliance | 12 | 3.0 | |||
| More Europe | 2 | 0.5 | |||
| Civic Commitment | 1 | 0.5 | |||
| Aosta Valley | 1 | 0.5 | |||
| Total seats | 68 | 17.0 | |||
| Five Star Movement | 52 | 13.0 | |||
| Action - Italia Viva | 21 | 5.2 | |||
| South Tyrolean People's Party | 3 | 0.7 | |||
| South Calls North | 1 | 0.25 | |||
| Associative Movement of Italians Abroad | 1 | 0.25 | |||
| Total | 400 | 100 | |||
| Coalition | Party | Seats | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Centre-right coalition | Brothers of Italy | 65 | 32.5 | ||
| League | 30 | 15.0 | |||
| Forza Italia | 18 | 9.0 | |||
| Us Moderates | 2 | 1.0 | |||
| Total seats | 115 | 57.5 | |||
| Centre-left coalition | Democratic Party-IDP | 40 | 20.0 | ||
| Greens and Left Alliance | 4 | 2.0 | |||
| Total seats | 44 | 22.0 | |||
| Five Star Movement | 28 | 14.0 | |||
| Action - Italia Viva | 9 | 4.5 | |||
| South Tyrolean People's Party | 2 | 1.0 | |||
| South Calls North | 1 | 0.5 | |||
| Associative Movement of Italians Abroad | 1 | 0.5 | |||
| Total | 200 | 100 | |||
Italy's dramatic self-renewal transformed the political landscape between 1992 and 1997. Scandal investigations touched thousands of politicians, administrators and businessmen; the shift from a proportional to thescorporo system (with the requirement to obtain a minimum of 4% of the national vote to obtain representation) also altered the political landscape. Party changes were sweeping. The Christian Democratic party dissolved; the Italian People's Party and the Christian Democratic Center emerged. Other major parties, such as the Socialists, saw support plummet. A newliberal movement,Forza Italia, gained wide support among moderate voters. TheNational Alliance broke from the neo-fascistItalian Social Movement (MSI). A trend toward two large coalitions (one on the center-left and the other on the center-right) emerged from the April 1995 regional elections. For the 1996 national elections, the center-left parties created theOlive Tree coalition while the center-right united again under theHouse of Freedoms. These coalitions continued into the 2001 and 2007 national elections.[17]
This emerging bipolarity represents a major break from the fragmented, multi-party political landscape of the postwar era, although it appears to have reached a plateau since efforts via referendums to further curtail the influence of small parties were defeated in 1999, 2000 and 2009.[18]
Five regions (Aosta Valley,Friuli-Venezia Giulia,Sardinia,Sicily andTrentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol) have special charters granting them varying degrees of autonomy. Theraisons d'être of these charters is in most cases the presence ofsignificant linguistic and cultural minorities,[19] but in the case of Sicily it was to calm down separatist movements.[20] The other 15 regions were in practice established in 1970, even if their ideation had been a much earlier idea.
There have been frequent government turnovers since 1945, indeed there have been 66 governments in this time.[21] The dominance of theChristian Democratic party (DC) during much of the post-war period lent continuity and comparative stability to Italy's political situation,[22] mainly dominated by the attempt of keeping theItalian Communist Party (PCI) out of power in order to maintainCold War equilibrium in the region (seeMay 1947 crisis).[23]
The Italian Communists were in the government only in the national unity governments before 1948, in which their party's secretaryPalmiro Togliatti was minister of Justice. After thefirst democratic elections withuniversal suffrage in 1948 in which the Christian Democracy and their allies won against the popular front of the Italian Communist andSocialist (PSI) parties, the Italian Communist Party never returned in the government.
The system had been nicknamed the "imperfect bipolarism", referring to more proper bipolarism in otherWestern countries (such asFrance,Germany, theUnited Kingdom, and theUnited States) where right-wing and left-wing parties alternated in government. Meanwhile, rising post-war tensions between right-wing and left-wing parties in Italy brought to theradicalization and proliferation of numerousfar-left andfar-rightterrorist organizations throughout the country.[24][25][26][27]
The main event in the First Republic in the 1960s was the inclusion of the Italian Socialist Party in the government after the reducing edge of theChristian Democracy (DC) had forced them to accept this alliance. In 1960, attempts to incorporate theItalian Social Movement (MSI) within theTambroni Cabinet, aneo-fascist[28] far-right party and the only surviving political remnant of theRepublican Fascist Party that was disbanded in the aftermath of theItalian Civil War (1943–1945), led to short-livedriots in the summer of the same year;[29] as a consequence,Fernando Tambroni was eventually replaced by the Christian Democrat politicianAmintore Fanfani as Prime Minister of Italy.
Aldo Moro, a relatively left-leaning Christian Democrat, inspired the alliance between the Christian Democracy and the Italian Socialist Party. He would later try to include the Italian Communist Party as well with a deal called the "historic compromise". However, this attempt at compromise was stopped by thekidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro in 1978 by theRed Brigades (BR), an extremistleft-wing terrorist organization.[30]
The Italian Communist Party was at this point the largest communist party inWestern Europe, and remained such for the rest of its existence. Their ability to attract members was largely due to their pragmatic stance, especially their rejection of political extremism and to their growing independence from theSoviet Union (seeEurocommunism). The Italian Communist Party was especially strong in regions likeEmilia-Romagna andTuscany, where communists had been elected to stable government positions.[22] This practical political experience may have contributed to their taking a more pragmatic approach to politics.[31]
On 12 December 1969, a roughly decade-long period of extremist left- and right-wing political terrorism, known as The Years of Lead (as in the metal of bullets,Italian:anni di piombo), began with thePiazza Fontana bombing in the center ofMilan. NeofascistVincenzo Vinciguerra later declared the bombing to be an attempt to push the Italian state to declare astate of emergency in order to lead to a more authoritative state. A bomb left in a bank killed about twenty and was initially blamed onanarchistGiuseppe Pinelli. This accusation was hotly contested by left-wing circles, especially theMaoist Student Movement, which had support in those years from some students of Milan'suniversities and who considered the bombing to have all the marks of a fascist operation. Their guess proved correct, but only after many years of difficult investigations.[32]
The strategy of tension attempted to blame the left for bombings carried out by right-wing terrorists. Fascist "black terrorists", such asOrdine Nuovo and theAvanguardia Nazionale, were in the 1980s and 1990s found to be responsible for several terrorist attacks. On the other extreme of the political spectrum, the leftist Red Brigades carried out assassinations against specific persons, but were not responsible for any blind bombings. The Red Brigades killed socialist journalistWalter Tobagi and in their most famous operation kidnapped and assassinatedAldo Moro, president of theChristian Democracy, who was trying to involve theCommunist Party in the government through thecompromesso storico ("historic compromise"), to which the radical left as well as Washington were opposed.[33]
The last and largest of the bombings, known as theBologna massacre, destroyed the city's railway station in 1980. This was found to be a neofascist bombing, in whichPropaganda Due was involved. On 24 October 1990, Prime MinisterGiulio Andreotti (DC) revealed to the Parliament the existence ofGladio,NATO's secret "stay-behind" networks which stocked weapons in order to facilitate an armed resistance in case of a communist coup. In 2000, a Parliament Commission report from theOlive Tree (centre-left) coalition concluded that the strategy of tension followed by Gladio had been supported by the United States to "stop the PCI and, to a certain degree, the PSI [Italian Socialist Party] from reaching executive power in the country".[34]
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With the end of the lead years, the Communist Party gradually increased their votes under the leadership ofEnrico Berlinguer. TheItalian Socialist Party, led byBettino Craxi, became more and more critical of the communists and of theSoviet Union; Craxi himself pushed in favor ofRonald Reagan's positioning ofPershing II missiles in Italy, a move many communists strongly disapproved of.
As the Socialist Party moved to more moderate positions, it attracted many reformists, some of whom were irritated by the failure of the communists to modernize. Increasingly, many on the left began to see the communists as old and out of fashion while Craxi and the socialists seemed to represent a new liberal socialism. The Communist Party surpassed the Christian Democrats only in theEuropean elections of 1984, held barely two days after Berlinguer's death, a passing that likely drew sympathy from many voters. The election of 1984 was to be the only time the Christian Democrats did not emerge as the largest party in a nationwide election in which they participated.
In 1987, one year after theChernobyl disaster following a referendum in that year, a nuclear phase-out was commenced. Italy'sfour nuclear power plants were closed down, the last in 1990. A moratorium on the construction of new plants, originally in effect from 1987 until 1993, has since been extended indefinitely.[35]
In these years,corruption began to be more extensive, a development that would be exposed in the early 1990s and nicknamedTangentopoli. With themani pulite investigation, starting just one year after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the whole power structure faltered and seemingly indestructible parties, such as the Christian Democrats and the Socialist Party, disbanded whereas the Communist Party changed its name to theDemocratic Party of the Left and took the role of the Socialist Party as the mainsocial democratic party in Italy. What was to follow was then called the transition to the Second Republic.
From 1992 to 1997, Italy faced significant challenges as voters, disenchanted with past political paralysis, massive government debt, extensivecorruption andorganized crime's considerable influence, collectively calledTangentopoli after being uncovered bymani pulite, demanded political, economic and ethical reforms.
In theItalian referendums of 1993, voters approved substantial changes, including moving from a proportional to thescorporo system which is largely dominated by amajoritarian electoral system and the abolition of some ministries, some of which have been reintroduced with only partly modified names, such as the Ministry of Agriculture reincarnated as the Ministry of Agricultural Resources.
Major political parties, beset by scandal and loss of voter confidence, underwent far-reaching changes. New political forces and new alignments of power emerged in the March 1994 national elections. This election saw a major turnover in the new parliament, with 452 out of 630 deputies and 213 out of 315 senators elected for the first time.
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The 1994 elections also swept media magnateSilvio Berlusconi (leader ofPole of Freedoms coalition) into office as prime minister. However, Berlusconi was forced to step down in December 1994 when theNorthern League withdrew support. The Berlusconi government was succeeded by atechnical government headed by Prime MinisterLamberto Dini, which left office in early 1996.
A series of center-left coalitions dominated Italy's political landscape between 1996 and 2001. In April 1996, national elections led to the victory of a center-left coalition,The Olive Tree, under the leadership ofRomano Prodi. Prodi's government became the third-longest to stay in power before he narrowly lost a vote of confidence, by three votes, in October 1998.
In May 1999, the Parliament selectedCarlo Azeglio Ciampi as thePresident of the Republic. Ciampi, a former prime minister and Minister of the Treasury and before entering the government also the governor of theBank of Italy, was elected on the first ballot by a comfortable margin over the required two-thirds of the votes.
A new government was formed by theDemocrats of the Left leader and former communistMassimo D'Alema, but in April 2000 he resigned following poor performance by his coalition in regional elections.
The succeeding center-left government, including most of the same parties, was headed byGiuliano Amato, a social democrat, who had previously served as prime minister in 1992–1993 and had at the time sworn never to return to active politics.
National elections held on 13 May 2001 returned Berlusconi to power at the head of the five-party center-rightHouse of Freedoms coalition, comprising the Prime Minister's own party,Forza Italia, theNational Alliance, theNorthern League, theChristian Democratic Centre and theUnited Christian Democrats.
Between 17 May 2006 and 21 February 2007, Romano Prodi served as prime minister of Italy following the narrow victory of his The Union coalition over the House of Freedoms led by Silvio Berlusconi in the April 2006 Italian elections. Following a government crisis, Prodi submitted his resignation on 21 February 2007. Three days later, he was asked by PresidentGiorgio Napolitano to stay on as prime minister and he agreed to do so. On 28 February 2007, Prodi narrowly survived a senateno confidence vote.[36]
On 24 January 2008, theProdi II Cabinet went through anew crisis becauseMinister of JusticeClemente Mastella retracted his support to the Cabinet. Consequently, the Prodi Cabinet lost thevote of confidence and the President Giorgio Napolitano calleda new general election.
The election set against two new parties, theDemocratic Party (founded in October 2007 by the union of the Democrats of the Left andThe Daisy) led byWalter Veltroni: andThe People of Freedom (federation of Forza Italia, National Alliance and other parties) led by Silvio Berlusconi. The Democratic Party was in alliance withItaly of Values while The People of Freedom forged an alliance with the Northern League and theMovement for Autonomy. The coalition led by Berlusconi won the election and the leader of the centre-right created theBerlusconi IV Cabinet.
The Monti government had the highest average age in the western world (64 years), with its youngest members being 57. The previous Italian Prime MinisterMario Monti is 70, his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi was 75 at the time of resignation (2011), the previous head of the government Romano Prodi was 70 when he stepped down (2008), the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano is 88 and his predecessor Carlo Azeglio Ciampi was 86. In 2013, the youngest among the candidates for prime minister (Pier Luigi Bersani) is 62, the others being 70 and 78. The current average age of Italian university professors is 63, of bank directors and CEOs 67, of members of parliament 56 and of labor union representatives 59.[37][38][39][40]
The new Italian government headed byEnrico Letta took two months to form and made international news when Luigi Preiti shot at policemen near the building where they were swearing in the new government on Sunday 28 April 2013.
Former Prime MinisterMatteo Renzi became the youngest prime minister at 39 years and his government had the youngest average age in Europe.
At different times since his entering the Italian Parliament,Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the centre-right, had repeatedly vowed to stop the "communists", while leftist parties had insisted that they would oust Berlusconi. Thus, despite the fact that the executive branch bears responsibility toward the Parliament, the governments led by Mario Monti (since 2011) and by Enrico Letta (since 2013) were called "unelected governments"[41][42][43] because they won a vote of confidence by a Parliament coalition formed by centre-right and left-right parties that had in turn obtained parliamentary seats by taking part in the elections as competitors, rather than allies. While formally complying with law and procedures, the creation of these governments did not comply with the decision made by people through the election.
Meanwhile, in 2013, a ruling by theConstitutional Court of Italy established that the Italian electoral system employed to elect the Parliament breached a number of Constitutional requirements.[44] Notably, the Court observed the following four facts:[45] 1) "such a legislation deprives the elector of any margin of choice of its representatives"; 2) "all of the elected parliamentarians, with no exception, lack the support of a personal designation by the citizens"; 3) the electoral law has regulations which "exclude any ability on the part of the elector to have an influence on the election of his/her representatives"; 4) and contains conditions such that "they alter the representative relationship between electors and elected people...they coerce the electors' freedom of choice in the election of their representatives to the Parliament...and consequently they are at odds with the democratic principle, by affecting the very freedom of vote provided for by art. 48 of the Constitution". This implies that, despite being called – and acting as – a legitimate "parliament",[46] the legislative assembly of Italy was chosen with a vote system by which the right to vote was not exercised according to the Italian fundamental chart of citizen's rights and duties. The issue was a major one, to the extent that the Constitutional Court itself ruled that the Italian Parliament should remain in charge only to reform the electoral system and then should be dissolved.[45]
The new government led byMatteo Renzi proposed a new electoral law. The so-calledItalicum was approved in 2015 and came into force on 1 July 2016.
Renzi resigned after losing aconstitutional referendum in December 2016, and was succeeded byPaolo Gentiloni. The centre-left cabinets were plagued by the aftermath of theEuropean debt crisis and theEuropean migrant crisis, that fueled support for populist and right-wing parties.[47] In 2017, the so-called Italicum was replaced by anew electoral law, which uses aparallel voting system to assign seats.[48][49]
The2018 general election produced once again ahung parliament that resulted in the birth of an unlikelypopulist government between the anti-systemFive Star Movement (M5S) and Salvini'sLeague, led byGiuseppe Conte.[50] After fourteen months,the League withdrew its support to Conte. The M5S subsequently allied with theDemocratic Party and other smaller left-wing parties to form anew cabinet, once again headed by Conte.[51][52]
In 2020, Italy was severely hit by theCOVID-19 pandemic.[53] From March to May, Conte's government imposed anational quarantine as a measure to limit the spread of the pandemic.[54][55] The measures, despite being widely approved by public opinion,[56] were also described as the largest suppression ofconstitutional rights in the history of the republic.[57][58] With more than 100,000 confirmed victims, Italy was one of the countries with the highest total number of deaths in theCOVID-19 pandemic.[59] The pandemic caused also asevere economic disruption, which resulted in Italy being one of the most affected countries.[60] In February 2021, these extraordinary circumstances brought to the formation of anational coalition government led by former president of the European Central BankMario Draghi, followingIV's decision towithdraw its support to the second Conte cabinet. On 13 February 2021, Draghi was sworn in as Italy's new prime minister. TheDraghi Cabinet had support across the broad political spectrum.[61] In January 2022, Italian PresidentSergio Mattarella was re-elected to serve a second consecutive seven-year term.[62]
On 21 July 2022, following agovernment crisis which ended with FI, League and the M5S deciding to withdraw their support to the government, Prime Minister Draghi resigned. PresidentSergio Mattarella consequently dissolved the Parliament[63] and called asnap election, which resulted in thecentre-right coalition, led byGiorgia Meloni, gaining an absolute majority of seats.[64] Meloni was formally sworn in as Italy's first female prime minister on 22 October 2022.[65]
Italy is generally described as a high-performing or middling democracy bydemocracy indices. The Economist described Italy as a flawed democracy in its 2024 Democracy Index, notably due to Italy's bad 'political culture' (6.88 out of 10 points). This measures popular support for democracy as opposed to military or expert rule.[1]:11,16 By contrast, Italy received almost full marks for its 'electoral process and pluralism' (9.58 points). In the global ranking, Italy came in 37th place.[1] Similarly, according to the 2025V-Dem Democracy indices Italy was the 30th most liberal democratic country in the world. It scored top 4 in the world for participative democracy, i.e. active citizen participation via civil society and local elections.[2]
Freedom House qualified Italy as free with 89 out of 100 points in 2024, citing its competitive multiparty elections and general granting of civil liberties. For press freedom however, Freedom House awarded Italy only five out of six points, citing common defamation suits against journalists with serious financial costs for defendants, even if acquitted after a lengthy procedure.[66] The think tank also raised substantial concerns aboutItalian LGBT and migrant rights, substantial regional inequalities and endemiccorruption in Italy and organised crime.[67] Global State of Democracy classified Italy as a high-range performer in all categories, except for the rule of law. As an example of flawed rule of law, the ranking cites that the central government reassigned the judges responsible for migrant detention, in what the opposition called retaliation.[68] ThePolity project describes Italy as a full democracy (10 out of 10) since 1948.[69]
The1970s in Italy were characterized by the persistence and prolongation of political and social unrest that many Western countries experienced during the late 1960s. The decade saw the multiplication offar-leftextra-parliamentary organizations, the presence of amilitantfar right movement, and an upsurge in the use of politically motivated violence and state repressive measures. The increasing militarization and the use of political violence, fromsabotage and damage to property, tokidnappings andtargeted assassinations, were justified by left-wing groups both as necessary means to achieve a revolutionary project and as defences against the threat of a neo-fascist coup.
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