Let's go through this question: What is the political climate like in Italy?
Like many other European nations, Italy is an older nation with strong conservative origins.
From a political perspective, Italy experienced the first-ever fall of the Berlusconi party following the 2011 financial quasi-collapse (after almost 20 years of indomitable victories and zero achievements both at the Central and Local government level).
Currently, the political spectrum is roughly split into three sectors that each draw (about) 33% of the electorate.
RIGHT
Berlusconi, who for 15 years had a relative majority of votes above 40%, has now fallen to fewer than 10%. With him, Italy basically lost 15 years of development, going from recession to recession, delaying any potential reform, securing the privileges of the dominant classes, and making sure to undermine any potential disruption of the Asian-style oligopolies that characterize the Italian business landscape. The Milanese tycoon is now approaching 80 years old, but his colossal failure in leading the Country for 15 years is still fresh in the minds of both young and old Italians.
The ultra-right demagogue Matteo Salvini has taken his position. Salvini was able to resurrect the Lega Nord party after several corruption problems owing to his expertly planned campaigns and the media's participation in providing him significant daily exposure. He transformed his party from a far-right anti-European/anti-immigrant party to one that was anti-Southern Italians and Federalist. His election results demonstrate that he was able to resuscitate and lead his party to be the leader of the center-right wing of the political spectrum. These messages resonate well with a sizeable portion of the Italian populace.
LEFT
After decades of nonexistent accomplishments, the extreme left parties have all but vanished from the left, and the new Partito Democratico's Primadonna is the current Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Despite being despised by the elderly dinosaurs who have been responsible for the Party's decades-long electoral defeats, Renzi managed to win (a "first time" for the Left in Italy). This is due to the fact that Renzi's message is not at all "Left," as many commentators think, and that many of his actual political choices are very similar to those of Berlusconi (e.g., Renzi's "gift" of 80 Euros to all taxpayers just before the election last year was a populist move straight out of Berlusconi's playbook). He is pledging to enable early retirement this year (just before the local administration elections): this is obviously a terrible political choice for a nation with debt at roughly 130% GDP and 40% young unemployment, but it demonstrates how well Mr. Renzi understands the typical Italian (who would sell his mom and daughter in order to stop working, retire early and enjoy life).
CENTER (albeit far from moderate)
The extremely young Five Stars Movement (Movimento Cinque Stelle), which is centered on the political spectrum, is led by the stand-up comedian Beppe Grillo, whose vision of "direct democracy" is implemented (by him and his close associates) directly from his blog (he hires and fires politicians with unsigned emails sent straight from his email account, amazing).
The 5 Stars Movement is now a bit of a (messy) riddle since they control a sizable portion of the populace that is fed up with political corruption and because they have essentially been the only outspoken opponents of the present administration.
Unfortunately, anytime they were elected to any positions in local government, they likewise failed to make a difference and sought the support of the nation's most conservative lobby groups (Taxi drivers and Do-Nothing Public Employees in Rome, adversaries of High Speed Trains in Turin, etc.).
They have shown to be completely unskilled in dealing with the bureaucratic system, internally fractious, and ultimately unsuccessful, despite being the most promising opposition party in the Parliament. Additionally, they come up with such a bizarre range of proposals on the most unrelated subjects (no euro, fixed salaries for all citizens, promotion of a vegan diet in public schools, etc.) that one questions whether they truly know what they are doing now that they are occupying key office positions.
Thanks,
Eddie