![The bipolar Italy of Giorgia and Elly but the ‘party’ of abstention is the majority in the country The bipolar Italy of Giorgia and Elly but the ‘party’ of abstention is the majority in the country](https://media.famigliacristiana.it/2024/6/famcristionline_20240610101026504_d9095d4d0129ba55040ecf2c5b6d1bc2_3427440.jpg)
The winners of the European elections in Italy are three: the “party” of abstentionists, Giorgia Meloni, incumbent prime minister and leader of the Brothers of Italy, the main party of the government coalition, ed Elly Schleinleader of the Democratic Party, the main opposition party.
It is quite curious that after an electoral round where everyone ran for themselves, with pure proportional representation, a picture of marked bipolarity emerged with the two leaders who have significantly strengthened themselves in their respective fields of action.
Let’s start with the truly worrying figure of abstentionism. For the first time in the history of republican Italy, voter turnout did not exceed 50%, stopping at 49%. five percentage points less than the previous electoral round in 2019, when participation was 54.5%.
From this point of view, the appeals of the CEI and of many associations in the Catholic world to go and vote were not heeded, especially in the South, where abstentionism dominated more markedly, with a turnout percentage that has reached red alert levels: around 60% of voters deserted the polls.
In Sardinia and Sicilyfor example, there was a participation rate of less than 40%, while in Calabria it just exceeded 40%. In Basilicata, Puglia and Campania, the turnout stood at around 43%, while Abruzzo and Molise they recorded 47% and 48% respectively. Numbers that seem to paint a peculiar Italian picture. Data from other European Union member states confirm a slightly positive trend, with voter turnout standing at around 51%, slightly higher than the 50.7% in 2019.
The success of Brothers of Italy it is evident from the numbers. Compared to the 25.98% of the September 2022 elections, Meloni’s party gained almost three percentage points, reaching almost 29%. Confirming and improving the consensus after more than a year and a half of government is a very notable result, especially if we consider the economic difficulties in which the government found itself operating.
The prime minister, fictitiously running for office in all the constituencies even though she obviously won’t go to Brussels, obtained just under 2.3 million preferences and therefore the choice to ask voters for a personal vote for herself paid off.
The success of Meloni and Fratelli d’Italia is also clear from a European perspective. Italy, in fact, is the only country in which the government emerges significantly strengthened by the vote.
In Germany the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) alone received almost the same votes as those obtained by the three parties of the coalition that supports the social democratic chancellor Olaf Scholz.
In France President Emmanuel Macron he immediately decided to dissolve Parliament and call new elections in the face of the overwhelming success of the far right of National Rally Of Marine Le Pen.
And also in Spain the socialist party of the head of government Pedro Sanchez he was defeated by the centre-right Popolari.
In Italy, on the contrary, the right-wing coalition obtained a clear confirmation, and this above all thanks to Fratelli d’Italia, which took three times as many votes as the allies of Forza Italia (9.7%) and Lega (9.1%).
This result gives great legitimacy to Meloni in the negotiations that will begin in the coming weeks with the other European heads of state and government to define the roles of the new European Commission with the “Ursula majority” made up of pro-European parties (EPP, Socialists and Renew) which not only holds but is the only viable way to have a majority in support of the new Commission.
«They saw us coming, but they couldn’t stop us», said the prime minister, commenting on the electoral victory last night in Rome.
It is a comment that he can make his own, in a mirror image, too Elly Schlein because the Democratic Party obtained a result, 24%, which goes well beyond the most optimistic expectations made in recent weeks. He did better than the 2022 policies, when the Democratic Party led by Enrico Letta took 19% of the votes and even better than European Championships 2019 when the party led by Nicola Zingaretti obtained 22.7% of the votes: in that case, however, the Dems were still counting on the contribution of Carlo Calenda and Matteo Renzileaders who would then promote splits in the following months.
Schlein won and has significantly strengthened herself in terms of personal leadership and as a possible federator of the opposition parties, while whoever campaigned against her lost, from the leader of the M5S Conte to the liberal center (Calenda and Renzi) obtaining disappointing results.
THE Five stars they did not go beyond 10%, followed by Forza Italia that, orphan of Silvio Berlusconiwas thought to have ended up on a path of irreversible decline and instead, with the League’s turn to the right pushed by General Vannacci, it presents itself as a point of moderate balance within the government coalition, while the pro-European centrist parties, even at due to personal conflicts between Renzi and Calenda, they did not exceed the threshold of 4 percent and therefore will not elect MEPs: a rather sensational defeat, although the sum of the Action (Calenda) and United States of Europe (Renzi) lists is over 7%.
A fourth winner of this round is Greens and Left Alliance of Bonelli and Fratoianni who with 6.6% almost doubled the 3.6 obtained in the 2022 elections, thanks also to the effect of the candidacy of Ilaria Salis which received over 165 thousand preferences.
A party that could shift the center of gravity of the progressive coalition a little further to the left and which was the third most chosen party (after the Democratic Party and the M5S) by the under 30s who voted. This shows that the issues of the environment, Green Deal and peace are decisive for youth mobilization and participation in the vote.