Fascism in Italy

It looks like Italy has finally (and rather belatedly) reached an agreement on a new coalition government, a combination of the Populist and anti-establishment 5-Star movement and the anti-Brussels and anti-illegal-immigration La Lega party. (George Soros' and Jean Claude Juncker's worst nightmare result.) Both parties appealed to similar kinds of voters, La Lega in northern Italy (they are the former Northern League and started as a northern separatist party) and 5-Star in southern Italy. Together they will add up to 352 out of 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.

It was increasingly evident in recent weeks that this was going to happen, but 5-Star was adamant that they wouldn't enter any coalition that includes Silvio Burlesconi, who they consider a corrupt 'swamp creature', precisely the kind of animal that they were elected to exterminate. But 5-Star's participation was crucial, since the rightish coalition of La Lega and Burlesconi's Forza Italia party only totaled 265 seats in the chamber, less than a majority. But Burlesconi has just agreed to stay out of the new government and if Forza Italia's out, 5-Star's in.

Matteo Salvini, the leader of La Lega, might not end up Prime Minister but he's the guy that "journalists" will be quoting, since he's hugely outspoken and quotable, famous for once saying "The EU can f*ck itself". (Trump needs to get on the phone with this guy!)

Salvini's said that he respects the choice of UK voters to leave the EU and that he opposes any EU attempts to punish the UK for Brexit, or any action by Brussels that will screw up Italy and the UK's mutually beneficial financial and trade relations. "Great Britain is a friendly country with a long tradition of trading with Italy... You made a free choice with Brexit and I very much hope that it will be possible to maintain completely open trade with the EU without any penalties... European measures are the last thing I am interested in." Now the Eurocrats will have to factor in the possibility that if they push Britain too hard, they may lose Italy too. That looming spectre can only be good for London (and everyone who has dared oppose the hegemonic Berlin-Brussels-Paris axis).

The next PM will probably be the leader of 5-Star, Luigi Di Maio. He's less outspoken and more cryptic than Salvini, but a committed Populist and much more of a wild-card.

 

"In the medium term, the likeliest scenario is that Italy, and the EU, will muddle through, and that all the money that has fled the country in recent weeks will find its way back. The future probably won’t be catastrophic, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be pleasant. The markets and the technocrats have de facto veto power over Italy’s democratic decision-making, which means that outcome I’d most expect is actually more of the same."

https://slate.com/business/2018/05/italy-euro-crisis-how-likely-is-the-worst-case-scenario.html

 

No one knows the value of the currency in Italy, all being determined by the Wizards of Wise in Brussels. The true value of Italian currency is reflected in such as a high unemployment rate.

If still on the Lira, all from individuals to corporations would be guided in their financial decisions by the true market value of the currency.

 

Lots has happened since that post. Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio agreed that neither one of them should become Prime Minister, putting the other into a #2 position. So they agreed that a hitherto little-known law professor named Giuseppe Conte should get the job. Then that decision had to be taken to the President of Italy Sergio Mattarella , normally a ceremonial figure-head position, but like the Queen of England responsible for accepting or rejecting proposed governments. The President accepted Conte as PM and Conte, Di Maio and Salvini set about drawing up a list of ministers. So far, so good.

What blew things up was the fact that Mattarella also has to accept the ministers. He refused to accept Paolo Savona as Finance Minister on the basis that Savona is a skeptic about the Euro currency as currently conceived and had previously called for Italy to make contingency plans for leaving the Euro. Conte resigned as PM after only 4 days on the job and Mattarella appointed a deeply unpopular former IMF official as PM in his place.

The problem now is that the new IMF guy (Brussels' and Berlin's choice no doubt) needs to be confirmed by the Italian parliament. But la Lega and 5-star together have a majority in parliament and they are angry. So the new guy won't be confirmed. According to the Italian Constitution Mattarella can still appoint him caretaker PM, but only until new elections can be called.

So Italy is going back into election mode. And the Italian electorate is angry. Polls show Salvini's popularity and La Lega's polling ascending up like a SpaceX rocket while 5 Star more or less holds steady. So the populists will probably be returned with an even bigger majority than they have now.

Commentators are saying that Mattarella has played right into Salvini and Di Maio's hands. Neither party is likely to remain as popular as they are now when they have to actually govern, facing Italy's problems and exhibiting fiscal responsibility. But Mattarella has seen to it that they don't have to do that. They can campaign as the patriotic saviors of Italian democracy in the face of an attempted coup engineered by elitist and undemocratic EU establishment swamp-creatures who hope to prevent the people's voice from being heard. (And there's considerable truth to that.)

 

Things change fast in the volatile operatic world of Italian politics.

Now Conte is back and has presented a new lineup of ministers to Mattarella. Savona is no longer the proposed Finance Minister, he's the proposed European Affairs Minister instead. (Take that, Eurocrats!) Salvini is taking the Interior Minister job along with a Deputy Prime Minister title, and Di Maio the Minister of Industry and another Deputy Prime Minister title.

Apparently this new lineup is more likely to fly since both sides have compromised a bit, and the new government is to be sworn in tomorrow (without the need for new elections).

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44322429

 

Totalitarianism doesn't require genocide.

 

Did someone say so?

 

I know I'm turning this thread into a bit more of a "Euro-thread" but there's some stuff happening in Spain too. They seem to be going a bit Socialist (whatever that means in Spain)

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-44330370/political-earthquake-sees-spain-s-pm-ousted-from-office

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/02/europe/spain-swears-in-prime-minister-sanchez-intl/index.html