Italy Report

The giant stress test produced by the pandemic has revealed the weaknesses and strengths of the Italian system. The health and economic impacts within the country was particularly severe due to the fact that Italy was the first European country to be hit by the contagion, and that in 2019 the Italian economy had not yet fully recovered from the 2008 crisis (in fact Italy was still in a phase of slow growth). A new government, the Conte II executive, had recently taken power in September 2019, with the supporting coalition, made up of the Democratic Party, the Five Star Movement and other minor partners, brought together more by the need to avoid an early election that could have brought a populist-right victory than by any ideological proximity among its members.