The Italian Election Results: Writing on the Wall for Europe and the Eurozone?

The election results in Italy are being widely seen as a vote against the austerity policy introduced by Mario Monti who took office as Italy’s technocratic caretaker president in November 2011. Even though Monti succeeded in reassuring the financial markets and the Italian economy actually recovered under his leadership, the reaction of the Italian voters was one of ‘thanks, but no thanks’. Parties opposing the spending cuts gained 57% of the vote; Monti suffered a devastating defeat. As a result the financial markets reacted nervously, weakening the euro and increasing the cost of eurozone borrowing. What will happen now? Italy looks ungovernable; the rest of Europe (and the world) is baffled. If the Italian vote really is a vote against the austerity policy imposed by the EU, is it then time to re-think austerity measures and fiscal discipline? The EU leadership does not seem to think so. However, if Italy sinks back into chaos, destroying everything Monti had tried to put in order, what does this mean for Europe and the eurozone? If the traditionally pro-European Italians vote against the EU’s austerity policy, does this mean that voters in other eurozone countries will follow? Has the time come to seriously re-think the path Europe and the eurozone have entered?

Speakers
Eva Lichtenberger, Member of the European Parliament
Marco Incerti, Research Fellow & Head of Communications, The Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Teresa Pullano, Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre of Political Theory (CTP),Université Libre de Bruxelles and Teaching Fellow at Sciences Po Paris

Moderator
Bastian Hermisson, Director Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union