Fragmentation and conflict in the response to the COVID-19 crisis. The difficult relationship between national and regional governments in Italy during the pandemic.

The outbreak of the Covid-19 crisis in Europe is not only representing a terrible worldwide challenge for public health and healthcare systems, but it is also triggering relevant political conflicts and institutional consequences. Political tensions are arising both at the international level and national level, putting under stress national political and party systems as well as international solidarity (as it is happening, for example, in the European Union). This kind of political tensions involve also the relationship between the different national level of government with relevant political conflicts which concern both the distribution of competencies and the policy measure to implement during the pandemic crisis. In the wake of this kind of conflict, Italy embodies a paradigmatic example. Italy has been the first European country to be severely hit by the COVID-19. This crisis has put under stress the relationship between the central government - which is in charge to define national measures to cope with the pandemic -, and the regional governments - which have relevant powers on the management of health systems and the safeguard of public healthcare -. The paper aims to demonstrate that the conflicts arose between the Conte government and some regional governments cannot be explained only by policy reasons – which measures adopt to limit and contain the virus spread – but also by polity ones – that is the will of the regional government to preserve and enforce their powers and autonomy -. Such contrast can be explained also in light of the increasing personalization of Italian regional governments and politics. This state of affairs has made more complicated to reach a satisfying level of coordination of the multilevel governance approach to the pandemic, feeding fragmentation in the response to the crisis and triggering harsh conflict between the national and subnational levels of government. The paper will inquire this topic by the use of a content analysis concerning several public discourses and statements addressed by the Italian Prime Minister and a sample of Regional Presidents, in order to underline the different lines of political conflict and the institutional/political reasons behind those conflicts. The paper will demonstrate how the COVID-19 addressed not only the question concerning the resistance of the Italian healthcare system but also about the functioning of the multilevel institutional system and the effective coordination among different levels of government.