Italian election: Anti-EU populism on the rise;
immigration is key issue, by Ann Corcoran on March 5, 2018
Invasion
of Europe news….Italians have had enough! Populist surge in Italy as
Voters back anti-immigrant, anti-establishment parties Here is a bit of the story.
Complete results will be available shortly, says CNN.
(CNN) Italy is facing a populist uprising after a surge in support for
anti-European parties in Sunday’s parliamentary election, however no party
received enough votes to rule alone meaning the country will likely enter a
period of political deadlock.
The
anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) made significant gains in Sunday’s
vote though with 31% of the vote, it doesn’t have enough seats to form
government, according to state broadcaster RAI.
The
center-right coalition, which includes League — also known as the Northern
League — along with former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and
the neo-fascist Brothers of Italy, is likely to form the largest bloc in both
houses of the country’s parliament, a combined share of votes totaling over
37%.
Of
its coalition partners, the anti-immigrant League attracted the largest share
of the votes with 18% to Forza Italia’s 14%. The swing toward the League looks
set to give the party as many as 123 seats in the lower house, up from 22
seats, a six-fold increase.
As
no party secured a majority, the country faces weeks, if not months, of
negotiations between groups with competing interests to form a government.
Final results are expected to be released at 2 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET).
If projections are accurate, the result means that Italy could be
plunged into months of further political deadlock that could have broader
implications for Europe — both the League and the Five Star Movement are
anti-EU parties.
Bannon was in Rome this week to cheer on
the populists. All fine and dandy, but if he doesn’t want the original
Trump populist movement to die in the US, he needs to re-energize/re-organize
it, or find someone who will.
The
rise of anti-European voices, both on the right and from the anti-establishment
M5S, comes as Italians
appear increasingly divided over issues such as undocumented immigration
contributed to a rancorous campaign.
The
populist parties’ gains in the polls were not lost on US President Donald
Trump’s former strategic adviser Steve Bannon, who was in Rome to observe the elections.
Bannon
said in an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper that an
alliance between the anti-immigrant League party and the populist Five Star
Movement was “the ultimate dream.”
“This election is crucial for the global populist
movement” he said, saying it was an issue of “sovereignty” for Italians opposed
to immigration. More here.
Maybe
there is hope for Italy, but they need to get tough and stop the migrant boats,
send migrants back to where they came from and get busy having Italian babies!
It is demography stupid! My complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive is here.
Comments
Italy has
suffered under socialist governments since it ended the monarchy and formed a
republic in 1946. Italy has a parliament that was largely socialist, but that
changed this month as the two conservative parties won 68% of the seats. Italy
has a small private sector and a large public sector and relies on tourism to
survive. They are poised to end and reverse the refugee invasion.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
No comments:
Post a Comment