The Italian election is the latest installment of the ongoing political destabilization of the West. All across Europe and in North America, center-left parties are collapsing, popular support for the mainstream right is eroding, and new populist challengers are rising.

In the last general election, when the Five Star Movement (M5S), made its triumphant appearance, Italy’s fragile two-party system broke apart. A populist formation built on hatred of the political “caste,” opposition to corruption, and a techno-utopian ideology, rose from nowhere in the 2013 contest to claim 25 percent of the vote. After last Sunday’s elections, it became Italy’s largest single party, winning 32.7 percent of the votes.

The Democratic Party (PD), which led the government for the past five years, collapsed to 18.7 percent. The right-wing coalition secured 37 percent, but the results showed a radical shift in its ranks: Silvio Berlusconi’s neoliberal Forza Italia, for twenty-five years the leading force on the Right, ended up with 14 percent, while Matteo Salvini’s Lega, once a party calling for Northern autonomy but now modeled on France’s National Front , surged to 17.4 percent. Their smaller ally, the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia (FdI, Brothers of Italy), also gained ground, claiming 4.3 percent.