Archive of David Broder

The recent election signaled a decisive shift in Italian politics, marking the collapse of the parties that have ruled Italy for the past 25 years. In this interview, conducted by Lewis Bassett, David Broder surveys the state of Italian politics in the four weeks since the election, and asks where next for Italian politics.

After the Italian election, the old is dying and something superficially different but not all that new has been born.

The question of coalitions will be the decisive factor in the character of the next Italian government. 

Youth grievance was a major part of the 59 per cent vote that forced the resignation of Italy's former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in December 2016. Crankish remarks by the Democratic Party’s labour minister about young people leaving the country reflect the often gerontocratic codes of Italian public life, but they also drew political debate back onto one of the country’s defining social ills.