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Not all general elections can be considered as being equal: some are placed in continuity with the previous political phase and therefore do not change the most relevant features of the party and political system; others, however, tend to represent a watershed between distinct political phases. Without a doubt, the 4 March 2018 Italian general elections belong to the latter category. This article analyses those same elections from three points of view: firstly, it reconstructs and explains electoral turnout, both following a long-term diachronic perspective, as well as comparing the various areas of the country from a territorial point of view. Secondly, similar diachronic and territorial comparisons are conducted with respect to electoral results, so as to clearly identify winners and losers of the 4 of March. Finally, it presents flows of votes in thirty-eight different territorial contexts (cities or electoral constituencies): in this way, it is possible to precisely reconstruct the reasons behind the 'electoral earthquake' of 4 March 2018.

If you were to determine who the main Italian political character of 2012 was, the choice could only fall on Beppe Grillo. Until the local elections in May, his political presence had aroused scant attention, and he had been reduced to an essentially folkloric phenomenon. Grillo was considered a "troublemaker" who was in a position to influence the electoral results. This was the case in the regional elections in Piedmont in 2010, where the grillino candidate drew away votes from the candidate of the center-left, Mercedes Bresso. However, Grillo was not given chances to become a powerful and long-lasting political heavyweight. Following the local elections in May, the subsequent rise in polls, and the Sicilian regional elections of October, Grillo's Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S, Five Star Movement) has become a leading figure of the political confrontation. It is able to interpret the consensus of a large chunk of the electorate and can therefore influence the political strategies of other actors.