'Pizza Or Pazza' – All That Matters Is How Emotional Or Rational The Italian Voter Will Be

By all indications, Italy is heading for a new period of political instability, and, perhaps, long-term turmoil. The elections due on March 4 will most probably drag another key EU member into the claws of populism.

It’s likely to be a close-run election. Polls suggest the center-left Democratic Party (PD) headed by Matteo Renzi; the center-right coalition led by Berlusconi (who is often at odds with the Northern League’s Matteo Salvini, despite the two sharing a political platform); and the 5Star Movement headed by Luigi Di Maio (founder Beppe Grillo’s distanced himself from the group) will share the vote, with none of them able to form a stable government.

At the center of the political debate, the issue of immigration causes the most impactful reactions. More than half a million migrants, many from Africa, have landed on Italian shores in the last four years, prompting a backlash that has fuelled the center right, as the New York Times reminded. 

The pressure of the far-right, and populists is fuelling an anti-EU sentiment, Politico underlined that ''political insiders have been gripped by intense speculation that Renzi, the leader of the Democratic Party (PD), may be planning a post-election break from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the European Parliament to join a future centrist force led by French President Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche movement.'' 

This article is quite telling about how tricky European politics has become. What's at stake, then? To understand this, one has to cast an eye on what the political parties of Italy pledge to the voters. Here is the story, as another critical watershed in European politics is closing in.