Populist Punitiveness in the Italian Populistic Yellow-Green Government

Abstract

In this article we present a general interpretation of the recent tendency of Italian political forces to promote laws in the criminal field aimed more at producing political consensus of an emotional kind than at addressing real legal and social needs. In particular we'll demonstrate how the social trend could be classified as 'populist punitiveness', which has become stronger with the so-called populist turn of the Italian political system during the early 90s of the last century, and how it has become a permanent trait of the neo-populist forces that have dominated the Italian political scene for the past twenty-five years. In particular, we will analyse the government formed by the Northern League and the 5 Star Movement, also called the yellow-green government, headed by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, in power from June 2018 to September 2019. We will highlight how some of the most significant criminal laws have followed a general pattern that corresponds to a punitive vision of society, aimed at fostering feelings of fear and protection that are irrational rather than grounded. Our thesis is that the neo-populist turn of the Italian system has not only profoundly transformed the system and political structures of the country but also civil society and the public opinion, rebalancing entire spheres of the Italian social and political system.