BRUSSELS — More than half of the Italians who cast ballots on Sunday voted for populist parties, largely abandoning the traditional mainstream parties, especially on the center-left, continuing a European trend.

Here are some other takeaways from a “throw the bums out” Italian election.

Migration matters

The issue continues to disrupt and inflame European politics, including in Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and now Italy. With Greece, Italy has borne the brunt of recent large movements of refugees and migrants into Europe from places such as Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.

There is a strong feeling that the mainstream parties have no answer and that Italy got little help from the European Union in Brussels or from other member states. Once Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany cut off the migrant flow through Central Europe by doing deals with Turkey, neither Berlin nor Brussels seemed to care any more, and a European policy on migration is still unresolved.

“There was a sense in Italy of total abandonment over migration, which didn’t become a crisis until Germany suffered, and then stopped being one,” said Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.