How Early Elections in Italy Could Test Populists: QuickTake Q&A

Italy could become yet another European country to test the power of populists by holding a vote this year, joining Germany, France and the Netherlands. Though Italy’s next elections aren’t due until early 2018, several parties including the anti-establishment Five Star Movement are clamoring for an early contest. The resignation of Matteo Renzi as leader of the ruling Democratic Party (PD) on Feb. 19 added a further layer of instability to the government currently led by Paolo Gentiloni, a PD member and Renzi loyalist. If voted into power, a Five Star government might call a referendum to pull Italy out of the shared euro currency, putting the country’s fragile banking system and the European project at risk. The other parties are wrangling over election rules to make it harder for Five Star to get in.

Italy’s Constitutional Court struck down some of the changes in election law that were made under Renzi, who had sought to increase the power of a party that wins a vote. The court made its ruling "immediately applicable." That means voting for the lower house will again be similar to the proportional system of the Senate. Politicians are divided on how much that answers President Sergio Mattarella’s insistence that the two systems should be harmonized before he would agree to call an early election.