Vaccination Politics in Southern Europe: The case of Italy

Abstract By the end of 2022, over 80% of the population would be fully vaccinated in Italy, making it the country with the most people fully vaccinated (Mathieu et al., 2020). Many may wonder why Italy was so successful in its vaccination uptake. Some might attribute it to the fact that Italy was the first country in Europe crippled by the virus, thereby increasing political and citizen motivation to do anything to stop the spread and death counts. Others might point to the solid leadership of Giuseppe Conte, at first, and then Mario Draghi. Both prime ministers enjoyed exceptionally high approval ratings, translating into high levels of trust in their politics. A further reason points to the mandatory vaccination law. Italy was the first country in Europe to make the COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for health and care workers (Peruch et al., 2022). Other reasons for the success include the strategic purchasing and distribution of vaccines and favorable vaccine campaigns. These successes, however, did not come without important challenges directly related to the Italian vaccine campaign: first, the initial irregular vaccine supply; second, an uncoordinated rollout due to confusion surrounding which group of people would be vaccinated first; and third, an acute lack of health and care capacity propelled by decades of cuts to the Italian healthcare system. This intevention draws lessons from the Italian experience more broadly for future vaccination campagns.