Italian general elections: Populist surge prompts political deadlock

Italy’s general election on Sunday has so far resulted in a hung parliament, with the country’s Eurosceptic Five Star Movement emerging as the single party with the most votes.

Democratic Party (PD) leader Matteo Renzi arrives for a news conference, the day after Italy’s parliamentary election, in Rome, Italy March 5, 2018. The M5S’s candidate for prime minister, Luigi Di Maio, also sounded a conciliatory note.

“It’s a attractive day, despite the rain”, he said.

However, Columbia Threadneedle head of global rates and currency Adrian Hilton said while the result looks “messy”, the chances of Italy leaving the eurozone have not gone up materially.

Speaking at the movement’s party headquarters in Rome, Di Maio said: “These elections have been a triumph for the Five Star Movement, we are the absolute winners”.

It was just over a percentage point behind the PD.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is celebrating the strong showing of the League party.

“It was an extraordinary victory that fills us with pride and responsibility”, Salvini said.

“Italians don’t reject Europe”, she insisted, explaining that Sunday’s vote was more about local and social issues.

As the lengthy processing of coalition-building gets under way, the party’s newly pragmatic leader may now look for partners, but could find some unease among its own supporters for possible alliances on the far-right and others unwilling to do business.

The ruling centre-left Democratic Party came third, hurt by anger over growing poverty, high unemployment and mass immigration.

Berlusconi with coalition allies Giorgia Meloni and Salvini.

Salvini added: “I will remain a populist, those who listen to the people are doing their duty”. Since its birth in 2009 under the auspices of comic Beppe Grillo, the 5-Stars have attracted legions of mostly young Italians who are facing few job prospects and are fed up with Italy’s traditional politicians. As he made the announcement, he said the PD would not help the Five Star Movement or the League to form a new government.

Salvini also rejected the idea of forming a coalition with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), which got 32%, saying “No to unusual coalitions”. Friends of Putin, Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini took the most of these elections.

Italy’s eurosceptic League claimed the right to lead a new government on Monday, telling investors they should have no fear of it taking office after an inconclusive election gave its centre-right alliance the largest bloc of votes.

Salvini said he could rule out broad “special-purpose, time-limited or institutional governments”. Any government based on that combination would be euro-skeptic, likely to challenge EU budget restrictions and be little interested in further European integration.

“We have confidence in president [Sergio] Mattarella’s abilities to facilitate the formation of a stable government in Italy”, he said, while refusing to comment on the election’s outcome as long as the final results were not known.