Abstract

The drastic change of political scenario occurred with the general elections of 4 March 2018 (the first «populist» victory in a large West European country) introduces substantial new elements in terms of political alliances to form the government. A government is born that sees together the two anti-establishment parties: the M5S (criticism of the institutions of representation) and the League(refusal of immigration). In the government action in the period between 2018 and 2019 the immigration issue is central in the public discourse of Italian political actors. The debate and legislation on the immigration issue has been monopolized by the Salvini League and the M5S (and the so-called contract governance). In a context of remarkably high volatility, lexploiting a relatively low level of ideological structuring of the electorate, security and immigration policies (for the affirmation of ethno-national identity) determine the outcome of the European elections. The great success of Salvini’s League leads to the breaking of the alliance of the two populist parties confirming the difficulty of governing protest movements.