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5 Things to Know about the Italian election.

FILE - From left, Brothers of Italy's Giorgia Meloni, Forza Italia's Silvio Berlusconi, and The League's Matteo Salvini, attend a media event for center-right leaders ahead of the March 4 general elections, in Rome, Thursday, March 1, 2018. Within the center-right coalition, it remains to be seen if the moderate Berlusconi will hold sway, or if dominance will go to the more extreme views of Salvini and Meloni. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) FILE - From left, Brothers of Italy's Giorgia Meloni, Forza Italia's Silvio Berlusconi, and The League's Matteo Salvini, attend a media event for center-right leaders ahead of the March 4 general elections, in Rome, Thursday, March 1, 2018. Within the center-right coalition, it remains to be seen if the moderate Berlusconi will hold sway, or if dominance will go to the more extreme views of Salvini and Meloni. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

By Associated Press March 3, 2018 5 min read

ROME (AP) – An election in Italy on Sunday will determine the makeup of the nation’s Parliament and its next government. The balloting also should indicate if Italian voters, like those elsewhere in Europe, have tilted toward populist parties since the last general election in 2013. A split vote could spell weeks or months of negotiations to form a new government.

Here are five things worth noting about the election and aftermath:

PLETHORA OF POPULIST PARTIES

Populism was a factor to varying degrees in recent votes in Germany, France and Britain. Italy is taking the trend a step further. Three main parties that can claim a populist or nationalist bent are fielding candidates.

The presence in Rome this weekend of Steve Bannon – the populist architect of Donald Trump’s successful White House campaign – was a sign of the stakes.