Take the artistic works of Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Tintoretto and Caravaggio, the operas of Verdi and Puccini, the cinema of Federico Fellini. Add in the architecture of Venice, Florence and Rome, and you have just a fraction of the treasures produced in Italy over the centuries. While the country is renowned for these and other charms, however, it is also notorious for its precarious political stability.
Only unified in the 19th century, Italy saw the rise of fascism in the 1920s. In 1922, after the famous March on Rome with his followers, Benito Mussolini took office as Italian Prime Minister. He stayed in power until 1943, forming an alliance with Nazi Germany in World War II and being executed by anti-fascist militants in 1945.
Since the end of World War II, Italy has had dozens of different governments, a sign of the instability that has become characteristic of the country’s politics.
Italian politics, however, underwent a seismic shift in the early 1990s, when Operation Clean Hands exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and big business. Several former prime ministers were implicated, and thousands of businessmen and politicians were investigated.
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Italy is known worldwide for its beauties, which include ancient ruins and cities like Venice.
There were high hopes at the time that the scandal would lead to a radical overhaul of Italian political culture. Those hopes, however, disappeared when the old structures were replaced by a new political scene dominated by the multimillionaire businessman Silvio Berlusconi, who also ended up involved in scandals and corruption cases.
More recently, populist political parties came to power and formed a governing coalition in 2018. The coalition was disbanded in 2019, when power returned to centrist compositions.
Due to its past linked to the Roman Empire and the beauty of its Renaissance cities, Italy is one of the most visited countries in the world, with internationally known monuments, such as the Roman Coliseum. Rome is also the world center of Catholicism: the Italian capital is home to the Vatican, an independent state that represents the Catholic Church and where the pope lives.
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Capital: Roma
Population61 million
Area301,338 square kilometers
main languageItalian
main religionChristianity
Life expectancy81 years old (male), 86 years old (female)
CoinEuro
Source: UN, World Bank
President: Sergio Mattarella
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President Sergio Mattarella has a long career in Parliament, with good transit between left and right politicians.
Constitutionalist judge and veteran centre-left politician Sergio Mattarella was elected president by the Italian Parliament in 2015. He succeeded Giorgio Napolitano, who stepped down due to his advanced age.
Mattarella was little known to the general public, but highly respected in political circles, after a 25-year career as a parliamentarian and several moments as ministers in governments of both the left and the right.
Prime Minister: Giorgia Meloni
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Giorgia Meloni became the first woman to govern Italy leading the largest right-wing coalition since 1945
Leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, winner of the September 2022 legislative elections, Giorgia Meloni assumed the important post of Prime Minister. In Italy, the Prime Minister is appointed by the President of the Republic, with the approval of Parliament. He is the head of government, who appoints and chairs the Council of Ministers.
Meloni’s party consolidated itself as the greatest Italian political force, obtaining 26% of the valid votes.
The right-wing alliance led by the Brothers of Italy won the majority in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The coalition is made up of far-right allies of Matteo Salvini’s Liga party and conservative Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party. The Democratic Party (PD), the main formation of the left, obtained 19% of the votes.
At age 45, Meloni became the first woman to govern Italy. During the long campaign, she was the biggest opponent of then Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who had his government plagued by high inflation, war and restrictions during the pandemic. Meloni promised tax cuts as well as a family policy aimed at boosting the birth rate in one of the world’s oldest countries.
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Mario Draghi, former president of the European Central Bank, formed a national unity government in 2021
She replaced economist and former Bank of Italy governor Mario Draghi, who had formed a national unity government in February 2021 to lead the country in its bid to end the Covid-19 crisis.
Nicknamed “Super Mario”, Draghi is considered by many to be responsible for the euro’s survival after the eurozone debt crisis, during the period between 2011 and 2019, when he was president of the European Central Bank. He received support from all major parties in Parliament to implement his economic recovery plan.
Italy’s mix of media and politics has always generated newspaper headlines both at home and abroad, with concern always focused on the concentration of property in the hands of one man – former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Berlusconi’s Mediaset empire owns Italy’s biggest private television stations, and the public network, RAI, has traditionally been subject to political influence. Therefore, when Berlusconi was prime minister, he was able to exercise great control over both the private and public media.
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Political interviews feature frequently on Italian TV, influenced by business and political interests.
RAI and Mediaset dominate the Italian TV market. They are potentially powerful policy tools, especially considering that 80% of the population consumes TV for their daily dose of information – the highest percentage among European Union countries.
Brazil and Italy began their ties in the 19th century, as soon as Italy was unified and became a country. In 1861, the Brazilian government recognized the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1870 the wave of Italian immigration to Brazil began.
The arrival of Italians in Brazil had a great impact on the formation of local society, especially in São Paulo. According to the Brazilian government, there are around 30 million Brazilians of Italian descent.
Despite the ideological rapprochement between the Estado Novo (1937-45) and the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, Brazil declared war on Nazi Germany and its ally Italy. Brazilian troops fought in Italian territory against the Germans in 1944, the same year that diplomatic relations between Brazil and the post-Mussolini Italian government were reestablished.
The two countries have maintained a close relationship ever since, reaffirming their historic cultural ties. Many Brazilians have chosen Italy as their new home – according to the Itamaraty, 100,000 Brazilians live in the country. Trade between Brazil and Italy totaled around US$9 billion in 2019.
Important dates in Italian history:
476 – Fall of Rome marks the end of the Western Roman Empire.
1861 – Italy becomes a national state under King Victor Emmanuel II.
1915 – Italy enters World War I on the side of the so-called “allies”.
1922 – Fascist leader Benito Mussolini forms a new government and places the country under a fascist dictatorship.
1935 – Italy invades Ethiopia
1936 – Mussolini forms an alliance with Nazi Germany
1940-45 – Italy fights in World War II on the side of Germany. Invaded by the Allies in 1943, it signs an armistice. In 1945, Mussolini is captured and executed by opponents at the end of the war.
1948 – New Constitution. The Christian Democrats win the elections.
1951 – Italy joins the European Coal and Steel Community, which would give rise to the European Community.
1970s – Italy is experiencing a decade of political violence on the part of left and right movements.
1980s – The economy makes significant advances.
1994 – Tycoon Silvio Berlusconi forms the first right-wing government after the scandal exposed by the “Clean Hands” operation shakes the former political elite.
2002 – The euro, the single currency of the European Union, replaces the lira as Italy’s currency.
2001 – In the first constitutional referendum since 1946, the population decides to grant greater autonomy to the country’s regions, in determining their fiscal policy, education and environmental policies.
2022 – Giorgia Meloni becomes the first female prime minister. She leads the largest right-wing coalition to govern the country since 1945.