Ferdinando Giugliano, Columnist

Italy Prepares Itself for Prime Minister Matteo Salvini

Emilia-Romagna has supported the left since World War Two, but might fall to Matteo Salvini. It would be his most symbolically important victory.

January 22, 2020 at 6:30 AM UTC

Updated on

January 22, 2020 at 12:32 PM UTC

By Ferdinando Giugliano

Ferdinando Giugliano is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was previously a member of the editorial board of the Financial Times.

New territories.
Photographer: MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP

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Italy’s populist Five Star Movement joined forces with the center-left Democratic Party five months ago to push its former coalition partner Matteo Salvini out of power. A regional election this week in the leftist heart of the country will show just how much that experiment is failing.

The Emilia-Romagna region has supported the left since World War Two — even as the rest of Italy backed a succession of Christian Democrat leaders or Silvio Berlusconi. “Red Emilia,” Italy’s sixth-largest region by population and one of its wealthiest, has also been one of the left’s most reliable financial coffers. Traditionally, it would have been less of a surprise for Boston in the U.S. to vote Republican than for Emilia to pick a conservative regional governor.