European 2024: Fratelli d’Italia confirmed first party, PD second and growing, M5S meltdown

Brussels – The European Union’s turn to the right has not materialized, but in Italy, Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) has been confirmed as the leading party with 28 percent of support. Second place went to the Democratic Party, which, in the first election since Elly Schlein became secretary, gets 25 percent. The League, overtaken by Forza Italia and the 5 Star Movement, at 8 and 10 percent respectively, did not go well. The Green and Left Alliance managed to cross the threshold with 6 percent, while both Action and the United States of Europe remain out of the European Parliament. The abstentionism is a concern, with only 49.7 percent of eligible voters going to the polls: the lowest figure in the history of the Republic.

It is a confirmation for the Premier, Giorgia Meloni, who sees her party first in Italy, increasing the consensus obtained in the 2022 political elections, and first as the number of MEPs within the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Eurogroup. Fratelli d’Italia will bring as many as 24 members to the Strasbourg Assembly. FdI performs well throughout the country: it is the most voted list in all five constituencies. However, despite the positive result, Fratelli d’Italia obtained the lowest percentage among the winning parties in the European elections in Italy since 1999.

The Democratic Party performed well, confirming itself as the second largest force in Italy, growing both compared to the 2019 European elections – when it took 18 percent – and the last political elections. With 20 candidates elected, the PD delegation, with Spain’s PSOE, will be the largest within the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) Eurogroup. Overnight, Schlein, surrounded by members of the secretariat, commented on the result, calling it “extraordinary” and claiming that it is the political force that has grown the most since the elections for the 2022 Parliament. The PD was the leading force in Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Campagna, Basilicata, and Puglia.

The 5 Star Movement was disappointing. Despite being the third largest force in the country, it only got just over 10 percent, finishing well behind the PD and FdI. The party founded by Beppe Grillo had not achieved such a low result since it entered national politics in 2013. An election that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of leader Giuseppe Conte, who announces, “The vote forces us to reflect internally.” The only positive note for the 5 Stars is the youth vote: among the under-30s, it was the second most voted party after the PD.

In the first elections after the passing of its leader and founder, Silvio Berlusconi, Forza Italia got just under 10 percent but saw its support grow.  Under the leadership of Antonio Tajani, FI managed to win the business vote in the north, but at the same time, speak to the south, FI’s historic basin. It is no coincidence that Forza Italia is the most-voted party in Calabria and Sicily.

The League’s campaign, strongly Euroskeptic and increasingly critical of support for Ukraine, did not pay off. The Carroccio, which not even Umberto Bossi voted for, drops from 29 MEPs to 8, including the controversial general Roberto Vannacci. The League also struggles in the two northern constituencies, its hunting ground, where it comes in well behind its government allies of Fratelli d’Italia,  the PD, and is trailed closely by Forza Italia. For the secretary, Matteo Salvini, however, the result is not disappointing, and he claims, “Being in government has weakened us, but despite this, the League is not losing votes compared to politics.”

Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli make it, Carlo Calenda and Matteo Renzi don’t: the Greens and Italian Left achieve an unexpected result, and with 6 percent, they enter the European Parliament. In contrast, neither Action – which gets 3.5 percent – nor the United States of Europe – with 3.7 – managed to pass the threshold set at 4 percent. On the lists of the Green and Left Alliance, there is Ilaria Salis elected, the activist who ended up in jail in Budapest after a clash with a group of fascist militants. Satisfaction with the result emerges in the words of Sinistra Italiana leader Fratoianni, who warns, “This is only the beginning.” It remains to be seen where the 6 elected in Bonelli and Fratoianni’s party will sit: how many in the Left group and how many in the Greens/Ale group.