Inside Italy: Meloni's European election chances and late-night gelato in Milan

Election chances

This week, Italy is talking about the upcoming European parliamentary elections in June - or, at least, about the Italian candidates.

There’s not much discussion of the likely results, which seem a foregone conclusion. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is expected to do well - and in fact to lead the far-right's election charge in Europe - with Meloni herself standing as lead candidate: she urged voters this week to simply write 'Giorgia' on their ballot papers.

Meloni is very unlikely to actually take up a seat as an MEP, since doing so would mean resigning from office in Italy. But her strategy of using her personal popularity to attract votes and boost her party’s chances at EU level isn’t as unusual as it might sound.

In fact, it’s a common tactic used by Italian party leaders and other high-profile politicians: Elly Schlein, leader of the opposition Democratic Party (PD), and Antonio Tajani, the current foreign minister from the Forza Italia party, are also standing in EU elections this year. The trend seems to have been set by (who else?) then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi back in 2009.

And it works, because a vote for 'Giorgia' actually goes to Giorgia's list - meaning she can pass on those votes to the next candidate from her party. Voters can't really express a preference for any one candidate on the list, regardless of what they're asked to write on the ballot.

While the European vote doesn’t technically matter at all to Italian politics, and you can’t always extrapolate much from the results, the predictions this time around seem to reflect the domestic political situation: Meloni’s party enjoys consistent popularity (mostly at the expense of her right-wing coalition partners) and a weakened and divided opposition poses little in the way of a challenge.

For the 2024 EU vote, Meloni’s party already leads the polls in Italy and is predicted to get 27 percent of the vote, ahead of the PD (20 percent) and the Five Star Movement (16 percent).

So maybe it’s not surprising that Italian media (and social media) has been more interested in discussing the candidates on Meloni’s list - who are far more likely to actually take or retain a seat as an MEP.

There are some very controversial choices among them, including the prominent anti-vax campaigner Sergio Berlato; recently dismissed former culture undersecretary Vittorio Sgarbi, who is currently being investigated over a stolen painting; and hunting enthusiast Pietro Fiocchi, whose family owns an ammunition company, pictured in his election campaign photo pointing a rifle at the camera.

New heights of this electoral campaign: the candidate pointing the shotgun against the voters.

(Fiocchi is an executive of the eponymous gun ammunition manufacturing company) pic.twitter.com/NzdWQjkulS

— Crazy Ass Moments in Italian Politics 🇮🇹 (@CrazyItalianPol) May 2, 2024

Midnight snacks

One story from Italy you might have seen doing the rounds recently was about a plan by Milan's city council to "ban late-night snacks" and "outlaw ice-cream after midnight".

New legislation is reportedly set to come in from May 17th banning the sale of takeaway food and drinks after 12.30am on weekdays and 1.30am on weekends and public holidays, as part of a plan to clamp down on Milan's rowdy movida (nightlife) and stop crowds of revellers from keeping residents awake.

The plan was widely ridiculed in the Italian and international media as an "anti-ice cream" ordinance - though councillors later clarified that "gelato is not the target" and that the rules would be more on the sale of "drinks, especially alcoholic ones."

It's not the first time Milan has considered banning the sale of takeaway food and drinks after a certain time. A similar measure was attempted back in 2013.

But why do so many of these zany-sounding proposals come out of Italy in the first place?

Italy's decentralised system of government means that regional, city and local authorities can all set their own varying rules on all sorts of issues - which is arguably useful, considering the differing natures and needs of each part of the country.

READ ALSO: Why Italy needs a national plan for sustainable tourism - before it’s too late

But it also means that, in the absence of national laws, local councils and the personalities within them are left to come up with their own creative solutions to problems - even though, quite often, the same problems exist across Italy (and elsewhere).

The suggested local laws that make international headlines tend to be those ones affecting tourism, and there are plenty of these being proposed now as Italian tourist destinations of all sizes are increasingly trying to offset the negative impacts of huge crowds descending each summer.

A small proportion of such rules proposed each year do become reality, which is why we have, for example, the Cinque Terre's ban on parking on the seafront to take a selfie, or Venice's rules against eating or drinking while sitting on the ground.

But as the number of international visitors to Italy is only forecast to rise this (and every) year, many people now argue that these local rules just aren't enough and national regulation is needed on various issues before many Italian towns and cities become unliveable.

There's no sign though of the government bringing in or discussing any nationwide rules regulating things like short-term tourist lets, much less the opening hours of gelaterie. So headlines about surprising local ordinances are likely to remain a staple of news reporting from Italy for a long time to come.

Inside Italy is our weekly look at some of the news and talking points in Italy that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.