“We don’t pay our bills anymore, now it’s going to be chaos”. Hundreds of unemployed people gathered outside the post office in downtown Naples, reports The sun 24 hours, to burn their energy bills. A way of protesting against the skyrocketing price of gas and electricity in recent months.
Like the rest of Europe, Italy is suffering from Russian pressure on gas exports. It is one of the Western European countries most dependent on Russian hydrocarbons, as can be seen on our map below.
Friday, September 2, Moscow announced the complete shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, after having closed the gas tap several times during the summer. This new stage in the arm wrestling between Russia and the West, initiated because of the war in Ukraine, does not bode well for the already galloping inflation on the Old Continent.
As early as April, the head of the Italian government, Mario Draghi, had taken the lead by going to Algeria to sign a contract with Sonatrach, the powerful Algerian national company. This had allowed the Italian government to secure additional stocks of gas, in anticipation of the winter.
Inflation and the rise of the far right
However, the country reached an inflation rate of 8.4%, which had not happened for nearly forty years, and energy is at the heart of political debates in the country. Following the resignation of Mario Draghi, snap elections are scheduled in Italy on September 25. The far-right candidate, Giorgia Meloni, of the Fratelli d’Italia party, is currently the favorite in the polls, facing Enrico Letta’s Democratic Party.
In Italy, as in the rest of Europe, the energy crisis and inflation could be accompanied by strong social protest after the end of the summer.