THE first duty of a newly elected Speaker of the chamber of deputies, Italy’s lower house, is to visit the president in his palace on the Quirinal hill. On March 24th Roberto Fico of the maverick Five Star Movement (M5S) was chosen for the job. But instead of following custom by slipping into an official limousine for the one-kilometre journey, Mr Fico walked up with his partner.
His election signalled not just a change of style, but a shift in the political landscape that shortened the odds on an all-populist government emerging from the consultations that President Sergio Mattarella is to initiate after Easter. Mr Fico, who began in politics as an environmental activist, won with the help of the populist-right Northern League and Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative Forza Italia party. Yet more strikingly, his colleagues in the Senate voted to make Elisabetta Casellati the new Senate president. Ms Casellati was the candidate of an electoral alliance including the League and Forza Italia. She is known for her loyalty to Mr Berlusconi, whose...Continue reading
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