Italexit (political party)

Italexit for Italy (Italian: Italexit per l'Italia), usually referred to simply as Italexit, is a populist, sovereignist, and hard Eurosceptic political party in Italy, which advocates the country's exit from the eurozone and the European Union. Its founder is Gianluigi Paragone, a former member of the Senate of the Republic and TV journalist. Paragone and Italexit oppose Italy's membership in NATO. Although the party rejects a classification on the political spectrum and includes some left-wing positions, it is considered right-wing due to Paragone's profile. Italexit was founded in 2020 after Paragone was expelled from the Five Star Movement (M5S). Between 2020 and 2022, Italexit was joined by several members of the Italian Parliament, mainly from the M5S and the League (Lega). Paragone had been a supporter of the M5S–Lega government, which was known as the Government of Change, and opposed the M5S government with the Democratic Party (PD).

Italexit was one of the leading parlaimentary parties critical of the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, particularly of the Green Pass. In the 2021 and 2022 local elections, Paragone and Italexit were unsuccessful in becoming mayor of Milan and electing councilors, respectively. For the 2022 Italian general election, Italexit formed a joint list with Alternativa, which represented left-leaning members of the M5S that exited the party after it joined the national unity government of Mario Draghi. Their alliance soon ended after Italexit had included far-right and neo-fascist candidates from CasaPound. During this period, the Italian press reported that CasaPound had successfully gained control of Italexit. In December 2023, Paragone left Italexit. In March 2024, some former Italexit members founded the Movement for Italexit, which was not supported by Paragone.