Italian Elections Results
March 7, 2018
Key takeaways:
- Establishment fatigue struck in full force as establishment parties got snubbed
- The Democratic Party was decimated, following a pattern of center-left defeats across Europe
- Five Star became the country’s strongest single party, overcoming criticism for poor management in Rome
- Matteo Salvini’s Lega Nord is now a force to be reckoned with, overtaking Silvio Berlusconi’s party within the right-wing coalition
- The election was inconclusive, as no single party or coalition received the necessary votes to get a majority in the Chamber of Deputies
Italian voters loudly voiced their discontent on March 4, propelling populist and far-right forces to the top of the polls. The center-left suffered its worse score since 1992; the Democratic Party (PD) received just over 1 more percent of the vote than Lega Nord (18.7 and 17.5 percent respectively). Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI) also disappointed pollsters, as the leader’s comeback bid seems to have served more as a stepping stone for Lega Nord than for his own party. While PD and FI both underperformed, Five Star beat expectations with over 32 percent of the vote, proving the success of its anti-system campaign led by the young Luigi Di Maio, who took over for ex-comedian Beppe Grillo. 
Voting patterns divided the country almost in half, with the northern half supporting the right-wing coalition (except Tuscany and Trentino, both PD bastions) and the southern half supporting Five Star. Voter fatigue has also grown: though turnout was at almost 73 percent, it has slowly been falling in the past twenty years, pointing to increasing voter disillusion in politics. 
Read more about the parties and their platforms in our Italian elections factsheet.
