Why the populists won

THE populist earthquake experienced in Italy’s general election on March 4th arose from deep fissures; none deeper than the eternal split between Italy’s north and south. The success of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), which took nearly a third of the overall vote to become the biggest party, resulted largely from the support it received in the neglected mezzogiorno,the south, where GDP per head is less than two-thirds of the national average and almost half of 15- to 24-year-olds are without a job. In Sicily every one of the seats decided on a first-past-the-post basis went to the M5S. That places its leader, Luigi Di Maio (pictured, right, with the movement’s founder, the comedian Beppe Grillo), in pole position to demand the top job.