PM Conte was glorified for his handling of the virus’ first wave. As the second wave sweeps across Italy, his approval rating is tanking.
As the second wave of the coronavirus encroaches Italy and brings about new, tighter restrictions, the popularity of prime minister Giuseppe Conte has taken a steep downwards turn.
In the past weeks, Mr Conte has been attempting to chase after the virus – which had spun out of control between September and October – by issuing a string of governmental decrees that imposed massively unpopular measures.
The latest decree, issued on November 4th, classified Italy’s 20 regions into three tiers and imposed progressively tighter restrictions according to their level of danger. The latest SWG polling found that only 35% of respondents approved of it.
The previous decree, dating back to October 24th, fared even worse at 28%. Violent protests erupted shorty after it was announced.
The decrees that Mr Conte had issued until September always scored well above 50% in terms of public approval. But, then again, the PM was enjoying a surge in popularity that derived from his effective handling of the first wave, for which he was showered with praise, both nationally and abroad.
Alessandra Ghisleri, director of Euromedia Research, measured Mr Conte’s fall from grace: his popularity had descended to 40%, against the 50% (and sometimes more) he scored back in April. She noted that this downward trend was also being recorded by other surveyors.
Ms Ghisleri attributed the drop to “a mixture of fear for the health and the wallet,” which is worrying more Italians as the pandemic measures wreaks havoc in businesses and social life.
Mr Conte predicted, rather optimistically, that the first doses of the vaccine will be available in December, and that the new measures would bring the virus under control in time for Christmas.
But Ms Ghisleri lashed at the PM’s poor managing of expectations: “if you overcharge [them], you don’t make them real, if you make promises you can’t maintain you’ll obtain devastating effects. The lack of answers, not being kept in the loop produces dissent at first, and then blind anger.”
Indeed, many Italians are blaming Mr Conte’s government for not doing enough to prepare for the second wave. The unforeseen closure of businesses (which had been brought up to code at the owner’s expenses), the lack of ICU units, the failure of the testing and tracing system and the limitations to free movement all played against the prime minister.
Additionally, according to Ms Ghisleri, 56% don’t think that the economic compensations promised by the government will ever arrive. 60%, on the other hand, think they won’t be sufficient. These woes are worsened by the fact that the European emergency funds will be available starting from next year, and only partially.
Although the trust that Italians have for him is waning, Mr Conte’s government is not expected to fall anytime soon. In fact, he is on track to become one of Italy’s top 10 longest-serving PM, a notoriously difficult feat in the country’s turbulent political world.
Time will tell if the new measures will bring the virus back under control. Until then, the prime minister will have to deal with the growing distrust and boiling resentment.
