Next Italian general election

In the 2018 Italian general election, no political group or party won an outright majority, resulting in a hung parliament.[4] On 4 March, the centre-right alliance, in which Matteo Salvini's League emerged as the main political force, won a plurality of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate, while the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) led by Luigi Di Maio became the party with the largest number of votes. The centre-left coalition, led by Matteo Renzi, came third.[5] As a result, protracted negotiations were required before a new government could be formed.

The talks between the Five Star Movement and the League resulted in the proposal of the so-called "government of change" under the leadership of university professor Giuseppe Conte, a law professor close to the M5S.[6] After some bickering with President Sergio Mattarella,[7][8] Conte's cabinet, which was dubbed by the media as Western European "first all-populist government", was sworn in on 1 June.[9]

In August 2019, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini announced a motion of no confidence against Conte, after growing tensions within the majority.[10][11] Many political analysts believe the no confidence motion was an attempt to force early elections to improve Lega's standing in Parliament, ensuring Salvini could become the next Prime Minister.[12] On 20 August, following the parliamentary debate in which Conte harshly accused Salvini of being a political opportunist who "had triggered the political crisis only to serve his personal interest",[13] the Prime Minister resigned his post to President Sergio Mattarella.[14]

On 21 August, Mattarella started the consultations with all the parliamentary groups. On the same day, the national direction of the Democratic Party (PD) officially opened to a cabinet with the Five Star Movement,[13] based on pro-Europeanism, a green economy, sustainable development, the fight against economic inequality and a new immigration policy.[15] However, the talks with President Mattarella resulted in an unclear outcome; thus, Mattarella announced a second round of consultation for 27 or 28 August.[16]

In the days that preceded the second round, a confrontation between the PD and M5S started,[17] while the left-wing Free and Equal (LeU) announced that they would support a potential M5S–PD cabinet.[18] On 28 August, the leader of the Democratic Party, Nicola Zingaretti, announced at the Quirinal Palace his favorable position on forming a new government with the Five Stars with Giuseppe Conte at its head.[19] On same day, Mattarella summoned Conte to the Quirinal Palace for the 29 August to give him the task of forming a new cabinet.[20] On 3 September, the members of the Five Star Movement voted on the so-called "Rousseau Platform" in favor of an agreement with the Democrats, under the premiership of Giuseppe Conte, with more than 79% of votes out of nearly 80,000 voters.[21] On 4 September, Conte announced the ministers of his new cabinet, which was sworn in at the Quirinal Palace on the following day.[22]

Under Conte's governments, the Italian Parliament approved the so-called "Fraccaro Reform", from the name of the M5S deputy who was the bill's first signatory.[23] The reform was finally approved by the Parliament, with the fourth and final vote in the Chamber of Deputies on 8 October 2019 with 553 votes in favor and 14 against. In the final vote, the bill was supported both by the majority and the opposition;[24] only the liberal party More Europe (+Eu) and other small groups voted against.[25] The reform provided a cut in the number of MPs, which would shrink from 630 to 400 deputies and from 315 to 200 senators.[26] On 20 and 21 September 2020, Italians largely approved the reform with nearly 70% of votes.[27]

After the 2020 Italian constitutional referendum, the Italian electoral law of 2017 (Rosatellum), used in 2018 Italian general election, was initially expected to be replaced entirely or its FPTP single-member districts be redesigned on the Italian territory for the next elections with 600 MPs.[28][29] The single-member districts changes were eventually approved and published on 30 December in the Italian government gazette Gazzetta Ufficiale: the Chamber of Deputies went down from 232 to 147 districts, the Senate down from 116 to 74.[30][31]

According to articles 60 and 61 of the Italian Constitution the election of both Houses of Parliament must take place every five years and no later than seventy days after the end of the previous legislature.[32]

This is a list of the main active parties which would likely participate in the election and are polled in most opinion surveys.