Parliament and regional representatives elect the president, who has no executive power but rather functions as the guarantor of the constitution, for a seven-year term. The legitimacy of the presidential vote rests largely on the fairness of legislative elections. President Sergio Mattarella was reelected in January 2022.

The president appoints the prime minister, who serves as head of government and is often, but not always, the leader of the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Italy’s Parliament. The prime minister proposes a Council of Ministers that requires parliamentary confirmation. Giorgia Meloni of the far-right Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) party became prime minister in October 2022, after a right-wing alliance including her party won the previous month’s elections.

The bicameral Parliament consists of the 400-member Chamber of Deputies and the 200-member Senate. Members of both houses are popularly elected for five-year terms, though the president can appoint five additional senators, and former presidents are also entitled to Senate seats.

The September 2022 elections were considered free and fair by international observers. An alliance that included the Meloni-led Brothers of Italy, the far-right League (Lega), the late Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right Forward Italy (Forza Italia), and Us Moderates (Noi Moderati) won 237 lower-house seats, while a center-left alliance that included the Democratic Party (PD) won 84 and the Five Star Movement (M5S) won 52. In the Senate, the same right-wing alliance won a total of 115 seats, while the center-left alliance won 44 and the M5S won 28. No other group won more than 10 Senate seats.

While Italy’s electoral framework and campaign finance regulations are complex, the elections they enable have consistently been deemed fair and credible.

The current electoral law, adopted in 2017, introduced a mixed system in both houses, with 36 percent of seats allocated using the first-past-the-post method, and 64 percent using a proportional, party-list method. The law encouraged coalition governments, as demonstrated by the 2018 and 2022 election results. In the 2022 elections, 18-year-old voters were able to take part in the election of senators for the first time, as well as for lower-house members, in accord with a 2021 constitutional amendment reducing the legal voting age for Senate elections.

Political parties are generally able to form and operate freely, and the political landscape features a high level of pluralism and competition. Since the beginning of the 1990s, politics have been characterized by unstable coalitions and the frequent emergence of new parties.

The Meloni government has refrained from banning neofascist movements since taking office. It notably did not do so after violent protests against COVID-19 vaccinations took place in 2021.

Italy has a long record of frequent changes in governing coalitions, with multiple transfers of power since the early 1990s. In the 2022 elections, center-left and centrist parties, who were unable to form large coalitions on the order of the right-wing alliance, collectively won more votes than Meloni’s bloc. However, the electoral law awards a third of seats on a first-past-the-post system, which favors broad coalitions, thus granting the right significant majorities in both houses of Parliament.

The public is generally free to make political choices without undue interference. However, organized crime groups retain some ability to intimidate and influence politicians, especially at the local level, and to establish corruption networks abetted by public administrators. In February 2023, for example, Mojo Alcantara was placed under the governance of a special commission after Mayor Bruno Pennisi and Deputy Mayor Clelia Pennisi were arrested for allegedly associating with a criminal organization. In April, Scilla mayor Pasqualino Ciccone was named as a suspect in a vote-swapping case with alleged mafia involvement.

Electoral laws contain provisions designed to encourage political participation by linguistic minorities, and to promote gender parity, though progress toward full political representation for women and LGBT+ people remains slow. Although Meloni is Italy’s first-ever female prime minister, women’s representation in the lower house decreased following the 2022 elections, ending a largely uninterrupted positive trend that began in 2006. Women made up 32.3 percent of the Chamber of Deputies and 36.1 percent of the Senate as of the end of 2023.

Migrants and their Italian-born descendants are especially limited in their ability to participate in politics, a dynamic exacerbated by the emergence of a xenophobic and nationalist discourse and by the failure of citizenship reforms. Recent attempts to reform the citizenship law in Italy—which would have allowed those born to foreign parents, those entering the country before age 12, and regular school attendees to obtain Italian citizenship—faced opposition from center-right parties, resulting in the proposal’s failure. According to survey data collected by the organization ActionAid, between 1.8 million and 2.5 million people are excluded from citizenship in Italy despite being born or raised there.

European Union (EU) citizens are entitled to vote in local elections.

Elected officials are able to craft and implement policy without improper interference from unelected entities. However, Italy has not yet adopted comprehensive lobbying regulations at the national level.

Corruption remains a serious problem despite long-term efforts to combat it, and its impact is exacerbated when officials and members of organized crime networks jointly carry out graft schemes. The perception among experts and business executives is that the level of public-sector corruption is relatively high.

In November 2023, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in Palermo disclosed its involvement in a fraud investigation, after the national Financial Police discovered a criminal network that was taking advantage of EU funding in 2022. Some 56 individual defendants and two companies were indicted for their alleged involvement. A trial into the affair was expected to begin in 2024.

The legal framework mandates administrative transparency and access to public information through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) adopted in 2016. Although the legislation designates access to information as a fundamental right, efforts to ensure compliance with FOIA requests by public administrators remain incomplete.

Freedom of the press is constitutionally guaranteed. Despite the rapid growth of the online news industry, traditional media still play a large role in news consumption. There are more than 100 daily newspapers, most of them locally or regionally based, as well as political-party papers, free papers, and weekly publications. Concentration of ownership remains a major concern. Internet access is generally unrestricted. The rise in strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) targeting journalists poses a threat to investigative journalism.

In May 2023, RAI chief executive officer Carlo Fuortes resigned, saying he was pressured to leave after rejecting the Meloni government’s efforts to influence RAI’s editorial direction. In an August comment, then European commissioner for the internal market Thierry Breton expressed concern over political interference in public media.

Religious freedom is constitutionally guaranteed and respected in practice. There is no official religion; while the Roman Catholic Church receives certain benefits under a treaty with the state, other groups have access to similar benefits through their own accords.

Some local governments have raised obstacles to the construction and recognition of mosques, and right-wing political parties have stoked anti-Muslim attitudes. Antisemitic acts have also trended upward in recent years.

Academic freedom is generally respected.

People are typically able to freely discuss controversial or sensitive topics in public without fear of surveillance or retribution. However, a 2022 law targeting unlicensed raves allows the authorities to surveil suspected organizers.

The freedom to assemble peacefully is guaranteed in the constitution and typically upheld in practice. In December 2022, however, Parliament approved a law criminalizing large, unlicensed raves, with punishments of up to six years in prison for organizers.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are generally free to organize and operate. In recent years, Italian authorities have engaged in repeated standoffs with NGO-operated ships involved in rescue operations of trafficked and smuggled migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean Sea.

In January 2023, a new “code of conduct” for NGOs engaged in such operations was implemented, placing restrictions and prohibiting NGOs from reaching the closest safe port unless authorized by authorities. Violations can result in an administrative sanction of up to €50,000 ($54,400), along with the potential impounding of vessels.

Trade unions are generally free to organize and operate. The constitution recognizes the right to strike but places restrictions on strikes by employees in essential sectors like transportation, sanitation, and health, as well as by some self-employed individuals, including lawyers, doctors, and truck drivers. In November 2023, the government issued an injunction limiting a one-day public-transport strike to four hours.

The judiciary is generally independent and autonomous.

A reform of the High Council for the Judiciary, which controls internal governance for the judicial branch, took effect in 2022, though legislation to implement some of the related changes was due in December 2023.

In February 2023, a parliamentary commission began discussing a bill that would separate the training of judges and prosecutors, who both belong to the judicial branch and receive the same training. The 2023 edition of the European Commission’s Rule of Law Report noted that local stakeholders opposed the concept, saying it would make prosecutors more susceptible to political influence. The proposal remained under consideration at year’s end.

Organized crime networks continue to threaten judges and prosecutors involved in antimafia processes, particularly in Calabria, but state protection measures function adequately.

Due process rights are largely upheld. However, judicial procedures are often characterized by lengthy delays; Italy has one of the lowest numbers of judges per capita in the EU. The government has been criticized for denying detained migrants access to lawyers. Recent criminal justice reforms include a requirement that initial appeals be resolved within two years, measures to accelerate the digitalization of the justice system, incentives for the use of restorative justice measures, and time limits for the preliminary hearing stage of cases.

While the population is generally free from major threats to physical security, there have been reports of excessive use of force by police and prison guards, particularly against undocumented migrants.

The law prohibits discrimination based on gender, race, and sexual orientation, among other categories, and these protections are generally enforced. However, Roma have unequal access to housing, and many live in segregated settlements that lack adequate infrastructure. LGBT+ people face societal discrimination and occasional acts of violence, and there are not effective measures protecting them from hate speech and hate crimes.

An increasing number of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees have landed in Italy via sea routes. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported that nearly 157,700 did so in 2023, a 50 percent increase over the number recorded in 2022. Asylum seekers and undocumented migrants have been held in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions. In September 2023, the Meloni government introduced measures allowing detained migrants to be held for as long as 18 months in some circumstances before being repatriated, instead of the previous 3. It also ordered the construction of new migrant centers. In November, Rome reached a preliminary agreement with the Albanian government to establish two migrant centers in Albania; these facilities are meant to hold people who are rescued at sea by Italian ships and would otherwise be subject to administrative detention. A related bill was under parliamentary consideration in Rome at year’s end, while a case on the agreement’s constitutionality was being heard by the Albanian judiciary.

The Italian government implemented other measures affecting refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers in 2023. In May, Decree Law 20 took effect, limiting the ability of people who may fear persecution or other abuses in their home countries to gain protected status. In September, the government issued a decree requiring those whose asylum applications are rejected to pay €5,000 ($5,440) to avoid detention during their appeals. In November, the government gained parliamentary approval to send 16- and 17-year-old migrants to facilities meant for adults.

Individuals are generally free to travel and to change their place of residence, employment, and education.

The legal and regulatory framework supports property rights and the operation of private businesses, but corruption and organized crime can hinder normal business activity, as can onerous bureaucratic obstacles. Delays in court proceedings often undermine enforcement of protections for property rights. The mafia have also exploited social and economic crises to expand control over cash-strapped local businesses via loan-sharking and money laundering operations.

The law protects individual freedom on personal status issues such as marriage and divorce. Same-sex civil unions, with many of the benefits of marriage, are permitted.

In January 2023, the government issued a circular instructing local councils to register only biological parents on birth certificates, affecting same-sex couples. In July, the Chamber of Deputies approved a bill that would criminalize the use of surrogacy abroad; surrogacy is already prohibited domestically. The Senate did not pass the bill by year’s end.

Even with increased public awareness of domestic violence, the problem persists. Gender-based violence is also a concern, with several well-publicized cases of rape occurring in 2023. In August, for example, seven men were accused of raping a 19-year-old woman in Palermo.

While Italy has implemented measures to address human trafficking and labor exploitation, both issues continue to be significant concerns, particularly concerning asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants from Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan countries. The trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation remains an ongoing concern.