Italy moves closer to forming a populist, anti-EU government

[-:Undertaker:-]

Italy moves closer to forming a populist, anti-EU government

The 5* Movement and Lega Nord are close to forming a government after weeks of deadlock

Growing expectation in Rome this morning that 5Star Movement and the League (both did well in election) will form a government, meaning, in words of La Stampa, that Italy will “become the first European country led by populist forces with a strong anti-European rhetoric.”

— Andrew Neil (@afneil) May 10, 2018

+++ Silvio Berlusconi opens the door to a League-5 Star government. Italy is on the brink of becoming the first large EZ country with a populist and eurosceptic government.

— Ferdinando Giugliano (@FerdiGiugliano) May 9, 2018

A populist Eurosceptic government ruling #Italy is now likely. https://t.co/czcrno3Bko

— Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) May 9, 2018

Yes getting close now... although a strong example against proportional representation which results in it taking months to form a government, often (not in this case) with the same party in that was just defeated.

https://www.politico.eu/article/matt...gue-far-right/

Matteo Salvini may not have won the election. But in the maneuvering that followed Italy’s inconclusive March 4 parliamentary poll, the Euroskeptic leader of the far-right League party has emerged as his country’s fastest rising political star.

Salvini may have dropped calls for a referendum on Italy’s eurozone membership, but he has doubled down on his pledges to ignore the EU’s fiscal rules, such as a 3 percent limit on budget deficits. His key economic proposals include a budget-busting reversal of a 2011 pension reform and a 15 percent flat tax on personal income and private companies that critics say would cause government revenues to plummet.

Salvini is also an avowed admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, raising the specter that the eurozone’s third-largest economy would, for the first time, be closer to Budapest than Berlin, complicating French and German efforts at EU reform.

And all building up for the 2019 European Elections (which won't include Britain) where nationalist, anti-EU parties will likely build on their victories in the 2014 elections which saw Ukip come first in the UK and the Front National in France.

What would be funny is that if, in the end, in the EU there is a majority for national right-wing governments so that they are making EU policy. What will the liberal establishment in Paris and Berlin then do when they are being told what to do from Budapest and Rome with an EU that is close to the Kremlin? Delicious stuff. I guess the conclusion in the end will be the same conclusion we reached.

Thoughts?

[-:Undertaker:-]

Italians look set to head back to the polls now this summer as the President blocked the appointment of a eurosceptic Finance Minister, so has now appointed a former technocrat as interim Prime Minister - in true EU style like they did with Greece.

"I mercati vi insegneranno a votare". Le parole del Commissario europeo #Oettinger sono assurde. Questa gente tratta l'Italia come una colonia estiva dove venire a passare le vacanze.
Ma tra pochi mesi nascerà un governo del cambiamento e in Europa ci faremo finalmente rispettare

— Luigi Di Maio (@luigidimaio) May 29, 2018

Too Late https://t.co/TMG6MGDG1u

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) May 29, 2018

Here we go...

Italy braces for populism on steroids https://t.co/YWH9dWEOTy

— Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) May 28, 2018

Unintended consequence of Mattarella’s veto: Italian elections will be a referendum on the euro. - https://t.co/VKWTz4IeXi

— Wolfgang Munchau (@EuroBriefing) May 28, 2018

When does the European Commission look at countries like Italy, the rise of the populism they hate, and think - we really should change our ways/ tweak what we do.

— Steve Hawkes (@steve_hawkes) May 28, 2018

Italy is currently learning that “There can be no democratic choice against the European treaties”, in the words of Jean-Claude Juncker.

— Mark Wallace (@wallaceme) May 28, 2018