On Sept. 25 2022, Giorgia Meloni won the snap election for the center-right coalition Brothers of Italy. Meloni is the leader of the Brothers of Italy Party, which believes in social conservatism, Italian nationalism, pro-birth, and euroscepticism. The party has been described as neo-fascist, but in their own words they believe in nationalistic policies that protect the Italian people.

Other European nations, such as France and Spain, have controversial parties on the rise. Italy’s election, and also the political landscapes in both France and Spain, are important to the global political landscape because countries in the European Union are having a shift, similar to the United States.

The values of the European Union are not opposed to the values of the Brothers of Italy Party, but there is a potential of clashing due to Euroscepticism. Globalization is the political and economic world we live in, and the EU functions as one of the sources of this – in line with their aims and values.

Italy’s election and the focus on Italian nationalism moves away from a global landscape and more to a country’s citizens. The EU and the United States of America have a good relationship, and this is important because looking at the relationships between global superpowers, and their shared goals and aims allows the public to better understand the economic and political goals of their respective nations.

The global political landscape has the potential to shift from globalized to more isolationist, which would change global relationships. Italy’s election is important because it highlights this potential to spread to other areas of the world. Italy is an important nation because of its relationship with the European Union and NATO.

The Italian system of government is different to that of the U.S. because they do not have a two-party system, but coalitions. Coalitions are alliances of political parties with similar aims. To give an example, it would be similar to the Libertarian and Democrat Parties combining to form a government.

Examples for the Italian coalition include the coalitions that make up the Italian center-right, which include the Brothers of Italy Party, but also the Northern League Party which focuses more on federalism.

Dr. Rausch, Teel Bivins professor of political science, discusses how we will have to wait and see how the Brothers of Italy Party and Meloni fare in the Italian political landscape.

“We’ll have to see what she does,” Rausch said. “The basic element of populism is its people. One of the big things though, and I wouldn’t say it’s populist, it’s more nationalist or nativist, a fear of immigrants.”

Populism is defined as the people’s politics. It focuses on the ordinary citizens’ issues. Although Meloni has won the most recent Italian election, she has not yet been declared prime minister.

“We don’t know if she will actually be appointed prime minister,” Rausch said. “We kind of figure she will be because that was part of the agreement with the parties.”

Meloni has won the recent election, but we can only know what will happen once she has been elected prime minister and she has been able to enact policies.