Learning about Italian Politics

Italian politics is particularly difficult to understand, do not let yourself to be mislead by names: look at facts. For example, Democratic Party (PD), the main leftist party, has turned under Renzi into a rightist party - being against trade unions, making easier to dismiss workers from their jobs, investing in arms, etc. - Berlusconi would be proud, actually Renzi is succeeding in enforcing all the policies that Berlusconi never actually managed to enforce.

The Italian Socialist Party, once getting 12% at the polls, was reduced to infinitesimal numbers when the corruption of the Bettino Craxi era was discovered. It is still so tiny you would need a lens to see it. Still, a top public servant recently arrested for corruption was shown to be in contact with the only deputy minister from the Socialist Party. The last true socialist in Italy was president Pertini, who died in 1990.

I should note that these are based primarily on my coordinates on the political compass, and my results on EUvox. I may not be too fond of Renzi's liberalism and centrism, but I still support factions of the party that are more leftist (which make up the party's base). As for the Socialist Party I should note that I am referring to the Socialist Party founded in 2007, not the former party.
But more to the point, how would I go about getting the flags of these parties and finding our more while I am in Italy?

Italy as a proportional representation electoral system with a minimum threshold of 4% in the House and 8% in the Senate (at the Regional level), therefore there is a multitude of smaller parties represented in parliament (as long as they obtained at least a percentage of votes above the threshold).
There are 630 Representatives in the House (House of Deputies) and 315 Senators in the Senate.

These are the main parties now represented in the current parliament (in order of size):
Partito Democratico (309 Reps, 113 Senators). This is the largest center left party and currently the majority party. The former Mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, leads the party and is the current Prime Minister of Italy. He's a centrist and moved the party decidedly to the center, much like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair did in their equivalent parties in the US and UK. It's a party that very closely resembles the Democratic Party in America, especially under Renzi's leadership (it used to be a bit more to the left before he took over).

Movimento 5 Stelle (5 Star Movement)(91 reps, 36 sen). It's a left wing party founded by a comedian (Beppe Grillo) who captured a lot of protest vote at the last election. They refused to participate in Renzi's government and sit with the opposition. They somewhat resemble the Occupy Wall Street movement in America. Its symbol is a 'V', in fact the name is written MoVimento, with a capitalized V in the middle. The V actually stands for "Vaffanculo" (I'll spare you the translation), the motto adopted by Beppe Grillo at his rallies. In 2007 Grillo called for a nationwide rally against party politics and career politicians called "the Vaffanculo day" or "V-Day".

Forza Italia (Go Italy) (70 reps, 64 sen). It's the main center right party founded by Silvio Berlusconi, its supreme leader. It has lost a lot of seats at the last elections. It resembles a moderate wing of the Republican party in America. Silvio's latest idea this week, is to rename it "Republican Party of Italy" and adopt the GOP's elephant as its symbol. This party is currently on the opposition.

Nuovo Centro Destra (New Center Right) (27 reps, 31 sen). A slightly right of center centrist party born from the split between Berlusconi and his former partner Angelo Alfano. This party chose to be in the governing coalition in support Renzi's government and Alfano is Renzi's Minister or the Interior.

Scelta Civica per l'Italia (Civic Choice for Italy) (25 reps, 0 sen). Founded by former PM Mario Monti, is a left of center centrist party currently part of the governing coalition led by PM Renzi.

Sinistra, Ecologia, Liberta' (a.k.a. SEL) (25 reps and 2 sen) is a left wing party (as the name implies) that chose to oppose Renzi's coalition from the left. It was founded by former left wing Democrat Nichi Vendola, the Governor of Apulia.

Lega Nord (Northern League). (17 reps 12 sen). It's a right wing party that in many ways resembles the Tea Party in America. They are for lower taxes, stop to immigration and repatriation of immigrants, Anti islam, Anti-gay movement, and in the past they advocated the Secession from the south and those lazy Southern Italians. Now they are willing to compromise on seceding from the South if they can simply kick all the Muslims and the gypsies out of the country. Its historic leader is Sen Umberto Bossi. It's current leader is Matteo Salvini (aka the other Matteo, as opposed to Matteo Renzi). One of its party leaders is Calderoli, a hard line physician who likes to take his pig on a leash for a walk to locations where local Muslims plan to build mosques.

In addition to the above there are 28 more parties none of which have more than 10 parliament members between representatives and senators.

I just want to chime in and thank Roberto for posting this info on Italy! I had a post going in the Scotland Forum when the General Election was happening. We were fortunate to have a couple of Scots and some Englishmen comment and add perspective. It was very enlightening and fascinating. I hope that you find the same on this thread. I think it's great to learn about the contemporary life of the countries we visit as well as the history!

Pam

Yes, thank you Roberto for the mini-course on modern Italian politics. Very helpful.

but I still support factions of the party that are more leftist

Just give Renzi enough time (a few months) and he will kick them out of the party.

If one considers that Renzi's Democratic Party only 25 years ago was called Italian Communist Party (from the ashes of which the current party was born) one cannot help but be amazed at the transformation over a quarter of a century which catapulted it into a progressive but mainstream centrist party.

I want to reiterate my original point

I am traveling to Italy soon, and I want to learn more about Italian politics while I am there, especially about the parties in Italy I support.
I would also like to obtain the flags of these parties as souvenirs, so my question is this: How should I go about this?

Which party that you support would you like the flag of?
Anyway try www.mibflags.com

Excellent descriptions of the various Italian parties Roberto!

Excellent work by Roberto that managed to find an online source for buying a PD flag. Maybe with some determination a SEL flag could be somehow found.

For Socialists and l'Altra Europa I still think that these parties are so irrelevant that finding flags would be quite difficult - an insider suggestion: I suspect that half of the Italian Socialist constituency are the old people playing cards at the Pescetti club in Florence, via Bellini - they may still have a Socialist flag.

A bit off-topic but I watched a very entertaining Italian film last week called Viva la libertà, starring Toni Servillo. It's about an Italian politician who, when faced with yet another campaign, falls into a depressive state. His twin brother jumps in and lights up the campaign and the people; I loved it. A semi serious comedy-drama that touches on current day problems. Available on Netflix.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viva_la_libert%C3%A0#Cast