29 March 2024

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EUROPEAN STAR SHOWER?

The result of parliamentary elections in Italy is a serious challenge for the EU

Author:

15.03.2018

Italian parliamentary elections caused a striking resonance in the Euro-Atlantic world. There are serious reasons for this. Not only did the elections herald serious changes in the balance of political forces of the Italian republic, but they also alarmed the European Union about a critical situation within the largest structure of the Old World.

 

Populists are advancing

Thanks to the support of 32.7% of voters, the leftist populist Five Stars Movement became the winner of elections. The Democratic Party representing the largest left-wing force took 18.7% of the votes. Finally, the right wing parties Lega Nord (17.4%) and Forza Italia! (14%) share the third and fourth places. The former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (81), who returned to the big politics, leads the latter. He is considered an informal leader of the coalition of right-wing forces in addition to Lega Nord and Forza Italia!, which also includes the national conservative party National Alliance and the Christian-Democratic We are with Italy. This coalition won 263 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 135 in the Senate on the sum of the votes it received. In this sense, the rightists are the actual winners of elections, since the Five Stars Movement received 221 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 112 seats in the Senate. The second runner, Democratic Party, led by retired Prime Minister Mario Renzi, along with a few allies secured 112 and 57 seats, respectively.

Thus, none of parties has an absolute majority in both chambers of the Italian parliament, which means that the prospects for establishing a stable government is rather vague. However, this is not the main result of the elections. It is more significant that Italy is experiencing a crisis of the two-bloc system established in recent years, when the right forces represented by Forza Italia! and the leftists represented by the Democratic Party succeeded each other. However, it is obvious that both the left and right populist forces advanced to the forefront of Italian politics.

The right-wing populists include Lega Nord, the ally of Berlusconi’s party. The name of the party speaks about its regional bank: it positions itself as an exponent of interests of the northern part of Italy, traditionally much richer and economically stronger than the South. This 20-year-old party is best known for its support of the separation of the north and south of Italy, for which it was accused of encouraging separatism. It did not succeed until 2013, when it managed to get 48 seats in the parliamentary elections. The 2018 elections explicitly demonstrate the progress of Lega Nord: it became the leader of the right-centrist bloc after receiving almost half of the right wing seats. In other words, for the first time, Forza Italia! lost to its younger partner in the coalition, and therefore the role of the right leader passed to the head of the Lega Nord, Matteo Salvini.

Populism of Lega Nord is visible with a naked eye in loud statements about the need to consolidate the leading positions of the North in Italian politics, as well as the implementation of Eurosceptic and anti-migrant policies. Interestingly, the last two postulates are supported by the populists of the left flank, that is the Five Stars Movement with a pronounced social aspect in its political program.

Five stars in the name of the Movement mean five rights for Italian citizens: free access to water resources (the water supply system in Italy is partially privatized), extensive transport system, free and ubiquitous Internet access, healthy environment due to efficient waste management, clean energy. Founder of the Five Star Movement, actor Beppe Grillo has been positioning his party as an anti-system movement, which advocates the direct participation of citizens in government and the maximum release of society from intermediaries between the people and the government. Grillo promises Italians an increase in the minimum wage, payment of 780-Euros-worth (monthly) benefits to citizens living below the poverty line, exemption from taxes for all citizens receiving less than 10 thousand Euros annually. In other words, measures that meet the interests of “poor citizens”, which prompted political scientists to classify the ideas of the Five Stars Movement as left populism.

Another indicator of populism in the Movement is Luigi di Maio, the new leader of the movement during the last elections. This is a 31-year-old politician who made his way to the parliament in 2013 after the results of internal voting through the Internet arranged by the Movement. In the same year, di Mayo became the Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, and became as popular as the then-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

The success of the anti-system Five Star Movement can unequivocally lead it to the role of one of the main links in Italy's renewed party system. The leading position on the right flank of the Italian establishment of the previously anti-system party Lega Nord testifies to serious changes in the image of the Italian policy. However, the ideological attitudes of anti-systemic populists led by the left di Mayo and the right Salvini, who claim to win even the premier's post, give the winners of the past Italian election race a clearly expressed European, or rather, anti-European face.

The result of parliamentary elections in Italy became a serious challenge for the European Union and the locomotives of European integration, Germany and France, in that the Italian political forces supported by the greater part of the electorate express the ideas of combating the bureaucratic dictatorship and the migration policy of Brussels. Both the Five Star Movement and Lega Nord advocate the revision of the main EU treaties.

Salvini's statement is already one of the triumphs of the election race: “The elections in Italy give us a chance to recreate Europe based not on restrictions, bureaucracy and decisions taken by speculators behind the backs of other people but on the will of men and women. They will not fool us anymore. Now the Italians will decide everything in Italy. Not Berlin, not Paris, not Brussels.”

The left and right wing populists, who have clearly approached political Olympus, are criticizing Brussels for the policy of “open doors”, which is the most painful issue for Italians - the uncontrolled growth of migratory flows. Beppe Grillo openly advocates that all migrants who do not have a work permit and residence in Italy should be kicked out of the country, the Schengen agreements should be temporarily frozen, and the EU's Dublin Regulation, which determines the procedure for granting asylum in the EU countries, is revised.

Matteo Salvini promises: “I cannot wait for the moment when I enter the government to restore security, social justice and tranquillity in Italy.”

Brussels does not like some foreign policy accents of Italian Eurosceptics either. Especially, their appeals to change the European policy towards Russia. Five Stars Movement consider it necessary, in the interests of the Italian economy, to lift sanctions against Russia, to review the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the U.S. and Europe, and to conclude a separate agreement with the BRICS. Lega Nord openly expresses its sympathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Here is one of the widely discussed phrases of Salvini: “I consider Putin to be great and I speak so sincerely not because I was paid for this.”

Liberal Western media described the new, post-election trend of Italian politics as the coming of “Putin’s friends” to power in Italy.

In fact, throughout the last year Brussels had to repel attacks by nationally oriented political forces, the so-called Eurosceptics and “Putin's friends” in a number of European countries - Austria, Holland, France, Germany. It seems there is a good reason for real confrontation between Eurosceptic nationalists and globalists supporting the European integration in its current, neo-liberal form. A significant adjustment of the traditional division of European political forces on the left and right wings of political axis is gradually becoming a manifestation of this process. This division line is increasingly expanding between the nationalists (statesmen) and globalists. By and large, it does not matter whether the former are presented by patriotic forces like the French National Front or the so-called populist movements that seemed to be marginalized yesterday, like the Italian Five Stars Movement.

Considering the current intra-European trend, Italy appears as another arena of struggle. The country, which is among the six founders of the European Union, with the third European economy after the launch of Britain's withdrawal from the EU, now stands a step away from the transition to the camp of opponents of European integration. Much depends on which party or coalition will lead the process of forming the new government of Italy. Indeed, even if the anti-system government is established in Italy, it does not mean that the populists will be able to materialize many of their political promises in practice. They will have special difficulties when solving issues that go far beyond purely Italian interests. Thus, the Five-Star Movement for reasons of environmental protection opposes the implementation of the laying of high-speed railways or the construction of a gas pipeline along the bottom of the Adriatic Sea (TAP project)...

But all these are pure hypotheses. In reality, Italy has made its choice. And if this choice yields fruits in the coming years due to unshakable will of the people, yesterday's populists, who have been mocked by the “classic politicians” for many years, will become real practitioners of state strategy. Apparently, such a prospective is likely to change the political appearance of Italy and to stretch beyond the common European future.



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