The Italian general elections took place ten days ago. The divided results and the relatively unexpected success of Berlusconi’s The People of Freedom Coalition (29.1% of votes) and Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement (25.5% of votes) triggered diverse first reactions across the European Press. The media have since followed closely the messages and moves of the main actors involved in this complex political game. Different scenarios have been projected but the uncertainty surrounding the formation of the future government and the possible political pacts remains extremely high.
In Spain, Italian elections have quickly lost salience in the press, overshadowed by the domestic corruption scandals, farewell of the Pope and the death of Hugo Chavez. Nonetheless, there is an interesting phenomenon concerning the coverage of the elections that should not go unnoticed, namely the anxiety about Grillo’s ascent, which seems to have united the otherwise strongly polarised Spanish press. It is indeed quite a novelty to find analyses from newspapers with very different editorial lines coming up with similar conclusions or warnings: that Grillo’s example may inspire the emergence of new or strengthen existing ‘populist’ parties in Spain.
The centre-left newspaper El País talks about a ‘resurgence of populism’ (03/03/2013) linking Grillo’s success to the previous electoral results of Syriza and Golden Dawn in Greece. Described as expressions of populism, these results are considered to be a reaction against the imposed technocracy and the weaknesses of the ‘old establishment’. In a different article (03/03/2013) the same newspaper goes further by stating that ‘the “virus” of Beppe Grillo is ‘threateaning to infect Europe’.