The Populist Experiment in Italy Has Failed
The country needs to do some soul searching before the next election perpetuates bad politics for longer.
Chaos.
Photographer: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFPItaly is back in crisis, unsurprisingly.
The political cycle that started with a populist earthquake in 2018, bringing together fringe forces of the left and right in an unusual coalition, has ended the same way it started — with a bitter shock to the system and market turbulence over the future of Italy. Along the way, it has fueled the rise of the far-right Brothers of Italy and the fall of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who was ultimately unable to escape the machinations of Rome. It seems no one, not even the man credited with saving the euro, gets a clean exit from government, no matter how applauded or internationally revered they happen to be. Because in Italy, politics is personal.