Five Stars Movement (M5S) leader and Prime Minister candidate Luigi Di Maio presents movement's parliamentary candidates for the upcoming March general elections in Rome, Italy on January 29, 2018. Giuseppe Ciccia/Press Association. All rights reserved.Has Italy lost its way? And could instability in the country jeopardise ambitions for a reform of the EU and the Eurozone? In the run up to an election that most commentators expect will produce no clear governing majority, ink has been generously spilt discussing the uncertainty surrounding the Italian vote.
Despite endemic reshuffles, Italy was once known for the quasi immutable configuration of its political system, with coalition governments dominated by the Christian Democrats following one another uninterrupted for the best part of its post-war history. Since the early nineties however, following the end of the so-called ‘First Republic’, the country has become much more unpredictable.
The Five Star Movement (M5S)’s establishment as a major force on the national political stage has recently added further uncertainty to an already faltering picture. Its self-declared posture beyond left/right politics disrupted a bipolar system that had crystallised in the previous two decades around the competition between centre-left and centre-right.
