Institutional Mayhem as Usual: Intergovernmental Relations between the Central Government and the Regions in Italy during the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic represented – and at the time of writing still represents – a challenge that goes beyond public health issues. Indeed, it has also exacerbated the challenges at the heart of the Italian institutional framework. This chapter focuses on the evolution of the Italian response to the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically on the intergovernmental relations (IGRs) that characterized the Italian multi-level governance system from the end of January 2020 until May 2021. This timeframe covers the first three pandemic waves and the subsequent decline of the epidemiological threat that followed each wave. In doing so, the chapter reconstructs the key dynamics that affected IGRs of different types (horizontal and vertical) in terms of their level of conflict, their capacity to share goals, their level of agreement on policies and practices, and the clarity of each level’s role. It also outlines the expected effects of these dynamics on the Italian regionalist – or quasi-federalist – configuration.