GIS Dossier: The Italian case
Rule by two anti-establishment parties makes Italy unique among major EU members
This new configuration could become a template for other countries
Italy has avoided immediate financial crisis, but business as usual has its own risks
The EU could face disruption, but also a convergence of populists and bureaucrats
Is Italy a weak link in Europe? Such fears have been often expressed in the past – witness Italy’s many changes of government and strong communist party in the Cold War era – yet nothing approaching a collapse occurred. Far from being a Trojan horse, Italy was one of the more solid members of the Western alliance, for all the surface turbulence of its political scene.
Today the Italian experiment with a left-right populist government, formed from an unlikely alliance between the leftist Five Star Movement (M5S) and the anti-immigrant, nationalist Lega (formerly the Northern League), is raising similar concerns, sending “ripples throughout the European Union and financial markets,” as GIS expert Enrico Colombatto wrote in an October 2018 report.
https://www.gisreportsonline.com/gis-dossier-the-italian-case,politics,2808,report.html