Italy’s 2018 elections results—with the success of the Five Star Movement, the relative importance gained by the Northern League, and the marked decline and ensuing disaggregation of the Democratic Party—have attracted much international attention and perhaps even caused some surprise. The anti-euro and anti-austerity character of much of the pre-electoral rhetoric of the two parties currently in power almost caused an institutional crisis in the country and generated the reaction, from miffed to arrogant, of various European leaders and commentators.