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Thoughts from readers in the know? A racist, quasi-fascist beats our former Prime Minister Berlusconi on the Right, a "joke" party gets nearly one-third of the vote, though no one seems to know what they stand for. What is going on?
Italians decided they wanted their country back?
Northern League is the first party in the North of the country. In large part, this is an anti-immigrants vote, fueled by an obscene xenopobhic electoral campaign. It is also a vote based on economical interest, since the League proposes the introduction of a low flat tax.
In the South, it is the 5 Star Movement that is leading. In this case, it is largely an anti-system vote: "the elite failed us; it is time to change", they seem to say.
The two parties are quite similar after all: they are both anti-immigrants, anti-EU, anti-Vax and anti-science, populist and hostile to liberal democracy. They both support Brexit, Putin, Trump and Assad. Basically, it is Trump over and over again. Steve Bannon is in Italy right now, and I am deeply sorry to say that he is one of the few to get talian politics right. https://www.politico.eu/article/steve-bannon-italy-election-like-us-donald-trump-vote/amp/
There is a further element: the collapse of the Democratic Party. In the last European elections, it got around the 40% of the votes; now it has less than the 20%. I do not know whether this has to do with the general implosion of center-left parties in the West or with Matteo Renzi in particular, who many consider to be a divisive figure. Be as it may, Italy is now running the risk of becoming like Orban's Hungary, and EU is really in trouble. A sad day. In fact, it is so sad that *even* the victory of Berlusconi would have been better.
Thanks for that informative comment, and my condolences to you and your fellow Italians.
I don't think is sound to say that there is no difference between the Lega and M5S: it would be like claiming that Trump and Sanders are the same because they are both anti-establishment.
What happened in Italy is that the voters turned away from the parties which supported neoliberal economic policies and EU's tight control on national spending. Voters who used to vote for Berlusconi voted Lega, and the ones who were voting PD turned to M5S. So basically the Lega ate up Forza Italia and the M5S devoured the PD, leading to a weird two-party system where one party (Lega) has a strong ideological positioning on the far right, and the other (M5S) is a classic example of "radical centrism."
From here, things can go very bad: if M5S and Lega create an alliance, Italy does indeed run the risk of becoming like Orban's Hungary. For this to happen, Matteo Salvini would have to renounce becoming prime minister and let the M5S lead the alliance. So the Lega defeated Forza Italia only to become subaltern to the M5S? Possible but unlikely.
There is another (and less bleak) possibility: the PD (or the part of it that is against Matteo Renzi) decides to support a M5S's cabinet. A long-shot? Not so much if you consider that one of M5S's most catchy proposal is "basic income" – i.e. something that the Italian far left (that got 3% at this elections) was also proposing.
If all there is to the electoral result is that Lega and 5SM voters turned "away from the parties which supported neoliberal economic policies and EU's tight control on national spending", then it is not immediately obvious why it is such bad news (also note that 5S candidates have been ambiguous on the EU issue as a whole).
I think there is a key element missing here, which was already noted above: namely, the xenophobic campaign launched by Lega and (to a lesser extent) 5SM that has raised the general level of perceived insecurity to an unprecedented scale — so much so that it has become commonplace to speak of an immigrant "invasion" (recently, a Lega candidate went so far as to say that immigration is endangering the "white race". It goes without saying that he was elected president of the Lombardia regional council). Interestingly, statistics show that xenophobic attitudes are higher in areas where immigration is relatively low.
Hi,
Thanks for your input. I think that your point on neo-liberal policies is well-taken. You *might* even be right that I have overstressed the similarities between Lega and 5 Stars. Maybe, I have a too bleak view of the latter. However, a comparison between 5 Stars and Sanders will not do either.
5 Stars are the only Western party that I know which is *owned* by a private society, whose MPs obey to whatever their leader tells them to do, where dissent is punished with expulsion, etc. They are better compared to Scientology than to Sanders.
Moreover, even though some of their policies are vaguely left-wing, their anti-immigrant and anti-system rethorics is reminiscent of Italian fascism, or L’Uomo Qualunque, if you prefer. This is what people used to say: “if a party claims to be neither left nor right-wing, then it is right-wing”. I hope to be wrong. Very wrong indeed.
The Italian economy never recovered from the 2008 crash. They have Europe's largest public debt and receive pressure from the EU to institute austerity measures at a time when many feel they need to invest in their economy. I spoke to a University of Pavia Political Science Professor about this yesterday and he pointed out that about 40% of people between ages 15 and 40 in Italy are unemployed, which is absolutely staggering. As a consequence people are desperate for some sort of radical change and the left in Italy has collapsed leaving only right-wing nutjobs.
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