Italy Election Gives Big Lift to Far Right and Populists

[Kilgore]

An Italian Brexit brewing?

++++++++++++++++++++++++

ROME — Italians registered their dismay with the European political establishment on Sunday, handing a majority of votes in a national election to hard-right and populist forces that ran a campaign fueled by anti-immigrant anger.

The election, the first in five years, was widely seen as a bellwether of the strength of populists on the continent and how far they might advance into the mainstream. The answer was far, very far.

After Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Emmanuel Macron of France beat back populist and far-right insurgencies, Europe seemed to enjoy a reprieve from the forces threatening its unity and values.

In Sunday’s vote, early results showed, the parties that did well all shared varying degrees of Euroskepticism, with laments about Brussels treating Italians like slaves, agitation to abandon the euro and promises to put Italy before Europe.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/world/europe/italy-election.html?ribbon-ad-idx=7&src=trending&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Trending&pgtype=article

[Dawson Leery]

1. This election was far more vile that the 2016.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/02/italy-election-migrant-racism-macerata-attack

Believe it or not, this was worse than Trump's bullshit.

The far right parties ran openly racist campaigns, the types ran by the old Southern Democrats.
Anti-Semitism an Conspiracy Theories ran rampant.

[Kilgore]

2. No kidding

Here is another snip from the article..... simply amazing to read.

"Not long ago, Mr. Salvini was insulting southern Italians, saying they smelled bad. But he shed his party’s northern roots and drew on the frustration over illegal immigration to appeal to those he once mocked. His campaign was rife with anti-migrant and anti-Muslim language.

That’s what voters seemed to like."

[DonCoquixote]

3. I hate to say it

But remember this this is the country that literally invented fascism. If there is a Hell, Benito is smiling.

[Grassy Knoll]

4. Russia, One Country At A Time..

Thanks Donne, Thank God At My Age I'm Almost Dead
Fuck!

[Initech]

12. Putin is a James Bond villain.

Except he must have killed Bond somewhere and is enacting his world domination plot.

[BigmanPigman]

5. Italy has one shitty govt after the other.

This is normal for them. My relatives live all over Italy and they have had leaders come and go my entire life and none is better than the rest it seems.

[bobbieinok]

6. Use to be able to say 'Well, that's just X. Thank God WE don't do such awful stuff!!'

[democratisphere]

7. Putin and his henchmen at work over-throwing elections again.

[Ezior]

8. So I checked out populist M5S, and wonder about Russia

I only know the German Wikipedia page about Movimento 5 Stelle, so maybe not everything is accurate.

I was wondering why everyone in comment sections seems to love the M5S. I assumed they are right wing nut jobs, or maybe actual communists, because that's basically the minimum requirement to get heaps of praise in German comment sections: You must hate Merkel and the current state of affairs in Germany, and love either the GDR from 50 years ago or the Third Reich. If you're anything like the German green party, the comment sections HATE YOU WITH A PASSION.

While reading the M5S platform according to Wikipedia, I was mostly positively surprised. I, as a voter of the German green party, can get behind many of their goals, and I guess most green party voters agree, even though it smells quite populist:
- Boost renewable energy installations
- Provide good, cheap (or free) Internet access to everyone
- Improve public transport, bike lanes and car sharing
- Force transition to renewable energy in individual transport, i.e. electric cars
- Better transparency in public discourse, get rid of media moguls by making it illegal for just one person to own huge media empires (hi Berlusconi, Murdoch etc)
- Increase payments to citizens without a job, high taxes on high incomes
- "Free" public health care
- Only public schools, English lessons starting in elementary school, free (and mandatory) lessons for migrants to learn Italian

So that's pretty nice!

One thing that stood out: They are apparently anti-vaxxers. WTF. So it seems like they are really not sane lefties, but rather part of the kook-left. More like the US green party instead of the German green party.

Then I read the part about foreign policy, and suddenly it became very clear why German comment sections love that movement: The M5S is apparently bought & paid for by the Kremlin. "NATO is an aggressive player that destroyed Ukraine, Europe must work closely with Putin", etc. The movement even runs a couple of fake news websites where Pro-Russia, Anti-NATO, Anti-Ukraine articles are published, like "proof" that Ukraine protects cannibalism.

Jesus Christ. Sometimes I wonder if I'm reading too much into that Russia stuff, but this is another hint. The party basically copied large parts of the German green party platform, that every online troll hates, with some crazy stuff added on top, but changed the foreign policy into the very opposite. Now suddenly everybody loves that movement. What the hell? I guess it's time to say "I, for one, welcome our new Russian overlords" because it sure seems like we're headed that way with everyone being brainwashed all over the world.

[Cha]

9. I guess they didn't notice

how it's not working out here so well.

'course maybe salvini isn't as stupid and bat shit as trump.

[Rene]

10. I'll bet this election was hacked / votes switched get the logs..watch URL's.

[maxsolomon]

11. The casual slouch back towards Fascism is world-wide.

70 years after World War 2, I really think it is innate to human nature at this point.

It will only get worse as ACC creates more and more refugees.

[Rene]

13. In my opinion England's Brexit never would have happened

without Russian interference with voting