Italy joins the populist anti-EU wave
Italy just had an election:
Italy was plunged into political uncertainty Monday after parliamentary elections delivered victories for populist, euroskeptic parties but left no clear path forward for a new government.
No party or coalition received enough votes to rule alone, and Italy now faces a hung parliament, in what European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker described last month as the “worst-case scenario” for Europe.
With nearly all votes counted Monday night, 50% of voters showed support for populist or right-wing parties. The anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) become the largest single party in parliament with roughly 32.7% of the vote, according to Italy’s Interior Ministry, although it will not have enough seats for an outright majority.
A right-wing coalition of parties won the most seats of any bloc in parliament with about 37% of the vote. The big winner in that group was the anti-immigrant and xenophobic League — formerly the Northern League — which garnered more votes than the center-right Forza Italia, its potential coalition partner.
European parliamentary politics often involve the need to form coalition governments, because with so many parties it can be hard for a single one to get a majority. And European definitions of “left” and “right” and “populist” are not necessarily the same as ours.
If you want to read about the Five Star Movement, see this. A quick perusal (very quick) indicates a mish-mosh of views most of which would not be considered conservative in this country, except for the anti-EU position. A party that also won a lot of votes in Italy, the League, is described just about everywhere as “far right,” but I have yet to see anything really explaining what the League stands for except that it is “anti-immigrant” (whatever that means in Europe these days) and anti-EU.
All in all, the results of this election can certainly be seen as an anti-EU vote:
The partial results showed that the two parties with the most euroskeptic platforms — the 5-Stars and the League — together topped the 50 percent needed to rule Italy. While the two are rivals, that scenario has been seen as the key barometer to watch to gauge Italy’s relations with Brussels, and a “nightmare scenario” for the European Union and markets if they were to form an unlikely alliance.
Claudio Borghi of the League told Sky that the election results send a clear message to Brussels.
“I think the will of the Italian people is very clear. The forces in favor of what Europe has done have been redimensioned,” Borghi told Sky TG24. “It’s a very strong message.”
It’s not surprising, given the elitism of the EU. That’s a common theme we keep seeing in country after European country.
The recent murder and dismemberment of a young Italian girl by a Nigerian migrant may well have inspired some of the populist fervor, as well as a widespread dislike of policies, particularly related to immigration, dictated from Brussels.
Yet the elite establishment whether it be the DC bureaucracy/media or Brussels/EU never adjust their response. No introspection, nothing.
“With nearly all votes counted Monday night, 50% of Italians showed support for populist or right-wing parties”
So… 50% of Italians voted for cultural and national survival and 50% continue to vote for cultural and national suicide.
By this late date, it seems probable that by the time enough of the lemmings awaken, societal collapse will be inescapable.
For those who oppose societal collapse are unarmed but it’s a virtual certainty that hundreds of thousands of jihadists will be armed.
“no clear path toward a new government”. That phrase validates the wisdom of our form of government, byzantine though it may be at times.
I don’t think it is overstating to say that bureaucracies are ravenous beasts that will gobble up individual freedom, first in order to perpetuate themselves; then to grow unrestrained. In my opinion the EU personifies this, even though the U.S. has its own problems
It’s been my observation from online debate in recent years (not here per se, but other forums) that Europe defines its right/left political spectrum by the preferred flavor of tyranny, in which ideologies that focus on global/cross-ethnicity are “Euro”-left and ideologies that focus on national or ethnic identity are “Euro”-right.
Basically, if your identity is based on a perceived class, it’s left and if your identity is based on religion, ethnicity, nationality or any sort of historic regional identity, it’s right.
Heavy-handed central statist government is assumed. Europe, collectively, has no remembered experience with – or desire for – principles like liberty, freedom, government for the people, etc.
Hence why Nazis are bizarrely considered right-wing by Europolitik standards.
While American lefties – at least older ones – understand perfectly well that the American political spectrum is entirely different, based on an idea of more vs less central government, they have eagerly jumped on idea of conflating American right (small government constitutionalists, christians, etc) as Euro-right (horrible evil nationalists, like Nazis).
I was in Italy for the run up to the 2016 Constitutional Referendum. I was surprised because the media was claiming the No vote was anti-EU, nationalist, and all that jazz. The friend I was staying with, however, is a socialist, and was adamantly opposed, claiming that the proposal just wasn’t well thought out.
As to the League being “far right”, all I can say is it wasn’t uncommon to see graffiti with saying Lega Nord with a swastika underneath. I asked, and my friend didn’t exactly go out of her way to say they weren’t Nazis. Instead she chose to stress their desire for increased autonomy and federalism. It seemed like the “immigration” question was a pretty heavy one for her.
She felt the need to do a lot virtue signaling about how wonderful the diversity was. How they were all well integrated. I have to confess, when I got off the train from Milan, and even in Milan, I felt quite uneasy. After living in Shanghai for so long, it barely felt like a city. It all felt a bit rundown and depressed.
I’ve said it before but it bears repeating. Toynbee made the general observation in the 40s that when a dominant elite loses the confidence of the internal proletariat the civilisation falls and the external proletariat invades. In this case the invasion is being encouraged by the dominant elite so the invasion is superficially peaceful but it sore vexes the internal proletariat and they have begun to vote against extinction in numbers approaching a majority. It is absolutely critical for the dominant minority to put an end to this voting nonsense if they hope to accomplish their goals.;-)
“in what European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker described last month as the “worst-case scenario” for Europe.”
A top Eurocrat moans. About the hoi polloi and their voting.The concepts of Nation and national identity live!
In the case of Italy and Germany, this is good news. AfD, vorwartsbewegen!
I wish Neo would turn her attention onto Merkel and what a left-wing pig she truly is and has always been. The WSJ has had some recent mediocre articles about her, the CDU and its minority coalition partner, the SDP, and Merkel’s chronic left-wing ‘drift’, which has been more like a plunge.
The true incident upon which the new Eastwood movie “15:17 to Paris” is based is highly instructive regarding Western Europe’s future.
Had those three young American heros not been on that train, would ANY of the younger Euros have fought back? Not a chance, they’d have cowered in their seats or if possible, fled screaming from the compartment.
At some point, when the “resentful and arrogant” young Muslim ‘extremists’ explode out of the no-go zones armed with smuggled in Kalishnikovs… the police will be overwhelmed. And the military will be unwilling to fire upon native Euros being held as shields… to get to the jihadists. That’s when the Merkels, Macrons and Junkers will flee and that’s when the real slaughter of a disarmed population will begin.
“No stronger retrograde force exists in the world”. Winston Churchill
Another thing that was striking about Italy in comparison to China was just how many young adults were idling about during the work day.
I know people like to say all the jobs that outsourced were shit jobs. I won’t argue that point. I grant it. But, you know what, sometimes that’s what a person needs to motivate them to knuckle down. Or even just to keep them occupied while they work things out. In Italy, it seemed like a lot of young people were just adrift, rudderless.
Pim Fortuyn, in the Netherlands, was called “Far Right” when the only “wrong” opinion he had was about Muslim immigrants. He was gay, highly articulate, and was becoming more and more popular until he was assassinated.
In Euro-Speak, the defining common attribute of people, groups or parties that makes them “far right” is the fact that the “progressive” establishment doesn’t like them.
It is fairly meaningless beyond that and entirely meaningless in any attempt to link them to conservative, limited government American Right.
Our predominantly two party system compares quite favorably to this sort of snafu that happens in the multi-party parliamentary system.
Aside: I’m in Chicago, and my wife and son are Italian citizens. The number of parties on the ballot was almost comical (including a “Free Flights to Italy” party, clearly a joke that went far). No wonder the results were so fractious.
Populist is a bad word, like nazi… the word has lost its original meaning just as fascism and other things have. .
ANTIFA Mob Attacks Yaron Brook & Sargon of Akkad With Smoke Bombs & Then Get A Beatdown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESMG4OtZa1c
Having visited Italy for two weeks in April 2017, I was shocked by some of what I saw and didn’t understand how it was allowed.
The military stand by while crowds congregate near 15th century and earlier buildings and even walk inside. Tourists are harassed constantly and we had citizens provide private tours who openly complained about the situation recently and were openly upset with the Vatican’s commentary when it sits behind tall walls.
The cities I visited were Venice, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Rome, and Milan. I loved the high speed rail but am not in favor of California’s version…..
Baklava, welcome to Italy. I haven’t been there in quite some time, but used to visit often with the U.S. Sixth Fleet. Naples, Genoa, Messina (Sicily), Brindisi, Florence, etc.
We laughed at the trash in the streets, and the chaotic disregard for traffic laws–or any laws if the Carabiniere were not in evidence. I commented, “so this is what a mature culture is like?”. Now we are Italy.
The Italians can be effervescent and charming of course. There is also–or was–a de-facto class system based on Geography. Those in the North perceived anyone from south of Rome as inferior persons; and didn’t try to disguise it.
Let’s just hope that our politics don’t reach the same level of disarray; but, I am not sanguine.
I loved the Italians and I felt at home in Italy.
The opposite of San Francisco. I do not feel at home there.
P.S. I didn’t visit south of Rome but heard that from a lot of people.
SF is basically Sodom/Gomorrah.
Did anyone ever read the Book of Jasher?
In that apocryphal account, Sodom’s problem was not normally their sexual liberations. It was something else on top of it.
Whenever a foreigner came to the city and was hit in the head by a city member, bringing out blood, the Law of the city was that the foreigner would have to pay his attacker for the privilege…
Why does that sound so familiar… how many cases do we know of where civilians who defend themselves from rape and violence in California are sentenced to a harsher sentence than the rapist/crook.