Angela
Elite member
- Messages
- 21,823
- Reaction score
- 12,329
- Points
- 113
- Ethnic group
- Italian
Bologna is still "red", and so is half of Toscana. Old habits die hard. Otherwise the north is going center-right.
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I'll be absolutely clear: Imo, the Five Star Party is European socialism run amok. "Guaranteed national income"? You think you've got economic problems now? Just try that. Insanity.
At the same time, Lega Nord sticks in my craw, even if it's not the Lega Nord of the past.
Anyway, what it means? from an American perspective:
"[FONT="]The people have spoken. But what are they saying? There are two main ways to read the results, and both have major consequences for Europe. One—and this is entirely new—is that one of the three pillar countries of the European Union now effectively has a euroskeptical majority in parliament; both Five Star and the League have called for rewriting treaties with Europe to give Italy more sovereignty. (Although it’s a big question whether they would team up to form a government; the election results have produced a hung parliament.) The second is that voters are punishing Italy’s governing elites—Renzi’s Democratic Party, but also Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party—for overseeing the country’s decline."
[/FONT]"[FONT="]The results of the vote fundamentally alter Italy’s relationship to the European Union. Five Star and the League haven’t called for an Ital-exit per se, but a loosening of ties that they say have held Italy back. How they’ll accomplish this is anyone’s guess. In a victory speech on Monday, Matteo Salvini, the head of the League—which he transformed from a Northern sovereignist party into a national one by campaigning on a platform of “Italians first”—said he wanted a “different” kind of Europe, one that gives more power to national interests over pan-European commitments[/FONT][FONT="]. [/FONT][FONT="]He praised Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who is famous for his authoritarian bent and for advocating what he has called “illiberal” democracy, and who has pushed back against taking in refugees from the Middle East. Salvini also thanked France’s Marine Le Pen for her support and friendship. But he shares some of Le Pen’s contradictions—like her, he is a euroskeptic who has served in the European Parliament; like her, he has said the European Union is a suffocating oppressor, while wanting lots of European Union agricultural subsidies for the farmers that form a key constituency. He’s walked back the idea for a referendum on the euro, now saying that the single currency was a bad idea but it would cost too much to get out of it.[/FONT][FONT="]But if Five Star becomes a governing party, which they will certainly do, having won the largest vote share with 33 percent, what does that mean for Europe? Lucia Annunziata, the editor of the Huffington Post Italia and a longtime television interview host, told me she didn’t think Europe should be too worried. “I think they will do a lot of wheeling and dealing and hammering the table,” she said. “But certainly they’re not ready to put Ital-exit on the table.”"[/FONT]
I'll be absolutely clear: Imo, the Five Star Party is European socialism run amok. "Guaranteed national income"? You think you've got economic problems now? Just try that. Insanity.
At the same time, Lega Nord sticks in my craw, even if it's not the Lega Nord of the past.
Anyway, what it means? from an American perspective:
"[FONT="]The people have spoken. But what are they saying? There are two main ways to read the results, and both have major consequences for Europe. One—and this is entirely new—is that one of the three pillar countries of the European Union now effectively has a euroskeptical majority in parliament; both Five Star and the League have called for rewriting treaties with Europe to give Italy more sovereignty. (Although it’s a big question whether they would team up to form a government; the election results have produced a hung parliament.) The second is that voters are punishing Italy’s governing elites—Renzi’s Democratic Party, but also Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party—for overseeing the country’s decline."
[/FONT]"[FONT="]The results of the vote fundamentally alter Italy’s relationship to the European Union. Five Star and the League haven’t called for an Ital-exit per se, but a loosening of ties that they say have held Italy back. How they’ll accomplish this is anyone’s guess. In a victory speech on Monday, Matteo Salvini, the head of the League—which he transformed from a Northern sovereignist party into a national one by campaigning on a platform of “Italians first”—said he wanted a “different” kind of Europe, one that gives more power to national interests over pan-European commitments[/FONT][FONT="]. [/FONT][FONT="]He praised Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who is famous for his authoritarian bent and for advocating what he has called “illiberal” democracy, and who has pushed back against taking in refugees from the Middle East. Salvini also thanked France’s Marine Le Pen for her support and friendship. But he shares some of Le Pen’s contradictions—like her, he is a euroskeptic who has served in the European Parliament; like her, he has said the European Union is a suffocating oppressor, while wanting lots of European Union agricultural subsidies for the farmers that form a key constituency. He’s walked back the idea for a referendum on the euro, now saying that the single currency was a bad idea but it would cost too much to get out of it.[/FONT][FONT="]But if Five Star becomes a governing party, which they will certainly do, having won the largest vote share with 33 percent, what does that mean for Europe? Lucia Annunziata, the editor of the Huffington Post Italia and a longtime television interview host, told me she didn’t think Europe should be too worried. “I think they will do a lot of wheeling and dealing and hammering the table,” she said. “But certainly they’re not ready to put Ital-exit on the table.”"[/FONT]