In Italy, as in other Western countries, electoral abstention has registered a sharp increase during the last four decades, more specifically after the transition to the Second Republic. Many scholars have deeply investigated the socio-political and territorial configuration of non-voting, as well as the most significant changes occurred over time. While in the first period, until the late 90s, the abstainers were mainly peripheral voters (with less resources, apathetic and disconnected from the political system), in the recent years the act of non-voting has lived more as an expression of political disaffection, an active behaviour that voters (also the most involved in politics) have used strategically to punish the incumbent. The last two sections of our article deeply investigate the political framework arising from the economic crisis of the 2008, after the end of the last Berlusconi’s government in 2011 and the period of transition under Mario Monti’s technical government. The 2013 Parliamentary elections and, more extensively, the disruptive vote of 2018, have showed the juxtaposition of two different dynamics: on the one side, a political demobilization through the safer non-voting option on the other side a growing support for anti-establishment parties (above all, the Five Star Movement), perceived as valid alternative choice instead of a vote for «old» parties or abstention.