North-South Divide

Italy’s North-South divide has existed since the country’s unification in 1861. It is commonly referred to as the “Questione Meridionale” or the “Southern Question.” The phrase first appeared in an 1862 edition of the newspaper il Roma. The concept gained broader intellectual prominence in 1926 through Antonio Gramsci’s essay “Alcuni Temi Della Questione Meridionale”. In this essay, Gramsci explored how cultural marginalization and uneven development shaped Southern Italy’s role within the Italian state. At its core, however, the Southern Question concerns the persistent economic disparity between Northern and Southern Italy. Southern Italy, which comprises 41% of the country’s territory, has a per capita income equivalent to only 56% of that of Central and Northern Italy. This issue has long been considered a national question because it concerns Italy’s uneven economic development and the relationship between regional and national identity.

Economic Disparity

The economic disparity is clear: Lombardy’s GDP per capita in the North of the country stands at 127% of the European Union’s average, whereas Calabria’s in the South comes in at only 56%. Similarly, the unemployment rate in Lombardy is 5%, compared to Calabria’s 20%. In 2024, the poverty rate in the Northwest and the Northeast of Italy stood at 8.1% and 7.6% respectively, compared to 10.5% in the South. These economic disparities contribute to a deep social division and to the marginalization of Southern Italians, whose regions cannot economically compete with the industrialized North. Many Southern Italians identify more strongly with their region than with the Italian state, a phenomenon known as campanilismo.  Historically, campanilismo was reinforced by weak infrastructure and limited connectivity between regions in Italy. This made interregional travel relatively uncommon until recently.

The 2022 Election

Early elections were held in Italy on September 25, 2022, after President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament following the collapse of Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government. Draghi had led an unstable national unity coalition that required extensive cooperation between parties from both the left and the right. The coalition ultimately collapsed when the Five Star Movement, a left-leaning and populist party, boycotted a vote tied to a welfare package, exposing the government’s internal divisions. The Fratelli d’Italia, or Brothers of Italy, were in opposition to this coalition, as they refused to join Draghi’s national unity government. This decision set the stage for them to come to power in the 2022 election, as one of the few parties that did not back the failed coalition. The Fratelli d’Italia, headed by current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, combines conservative nationalism with populist rhetoric centered on national identity, the power of the people, and xenophobia, specifically anti-immigration.

Voting in the North

The Fratelli d’Italia won the 2022 election with roughly 26% of vote share for both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Their economic agenda involves limiting government economic intervention and cutting welfare programs. The party also proposed tax cuts, and their Differentiated Autonomy Bill gave regions more power over how tax money is collected and spent. This benefits the North because the wealthier regions can keep tax revenues that typically flowed into welfare programs for the poorer South. Fratelli d’Italia performed especially strongly in northern regions such as Friuli Venezia Giulia (31.6%), Lombardy (28.7%), Veneto (32.9%), and Piedmont (27.2%). Northern voters favored their policies of economic decentralization, which increase the North’s share in tax revenues generated through industrial profits. Ettore Boffelli, the owner of a button factory in Northern Italy, told reporters that he supported the party in the hope that it would make Italian businesses more competitive through lower taxes and reduced regulation.

Voting in the South

Despite the South’s weaker economic position, Fratelli d’Italia also performed strongly across several southern regions in the 2022 election, including Abruzzo (27.9%), Apulia (24%), Molise (21.6%), and Sardinia (24%). Voter turnout is typically much lower in southern Italy compared to the North. Southern regions also continue to lag behind the North in welfare provision and public services. To quantify this, a look at the Welfare Italy Index shows the Northern province of Trento scoring 83.8 points compared to Calabria’s 60.2 points.  Child welfare disparities are especially pronounced, as neonatal mortality rates are four times higher in the South. Despite these inequalities, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni tightened eligibility requirements for social assistance programs after taking office. This decision has affected southern Italians the most, with the highest number of cuts recorded in Naples.

Southern Support: Belonging that Surpasses Economics

Fratelli d’Italia champions a populist radical-right vision that centers on the renewal of a unified national community. The party’s rhetoric emphasizes national sovereignty, cultural cohesion, and shared historical identity. Fratelli d’Italia has supported measures aimed at protecting what it describes as national identity and heritage. For example, they have passed a bill that safeguards the Italian language, and one that bans lab grown food. For the marginalized South, sentiments of rediscovering a single Italian identity offer belonging and dignity that transcend economics. Part of Prime Minister Meloni’s platform offers Southerners a sense of belonging to a single national community that will finally include all Italians. This has also attracted younger voters, particularly at a time when social fragmentation and political distrust have intensified following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Broader Implications

Fratelli d’Italia’s Southern support reveals the power of the recent revival of populist nationalism, which promotes national unity and offers ethnically-based inclusion. European survey data show that cultural values like nationalism are much stronger predictors of populist success than economic indicators like unemployment rates. US survey results similarly demonstrate that as political polarization increases, economically-motivated voting declines. Fratelli d’Italia, like many populist radical-right movements in Europe, has been criticized for rhetoric directed against immigrants and LGBTQ+ communities. While Fratelli D’Italia’s politics of exclusion has been widely reported, less attention is paid to the ways in which populist nationalism can foster a sense of belonging among those considered part of the national in-group. This inclusion appeals to the possibility of creating a collective national identity that entices marginalized communities, like Southern Italians, who have long felt that an unbridgeable divide exists between them and their fellow Italians.