Euro Policies and the Italian Election Divide

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Like most other European countries, coalitions run Italy. It’s too soon to know what parties will comprise the country’s new government.

Two ideologically different ones together got most support – the right-wing/anti-immigration Matteo Salvini-led League and populist Luigi DeMaio-led Five Star Movement.

Together they could form coalition government. Bridging the ideological divide between them may be unattainable.

The Financial Times called March 4 results “the biggest political upheaval in Europe since the Brexit vote in 2016…Italy on course for a hung parliament.”

Analyst Costantino Ceoldo believes “a union between the pseudo-Right and the pseudo-Left” is most likely in a post-election email to me, adding:

“They have always ruled together (for) the past 20 years. Italians are morons under many points of view” – electing governments hostile to their interests.

Italy has been an economic basket case for years – neoliberal harshness exacerbating deplorable conditions, complicated further by disastrous euro policy.

It’s a straightjacket harming economically and financially weak nations like Italy, economic powerhouse Germany benefitting at their expense.

Euro policy forces member states to surrender their monetary and fiscal sovereignty to Brussels, controlled by a czar-like European Central Bank.

Powerful monied interests are empowered at the expense of ordinary people. Italian election result showed voters want change, unlikely to get it from whatever ruling coalition is formed.

League and Five Star leaders are eurosceptic. Clearly the status quo is unacceptable throughout euroland.

Not according to the NYT, slamming the League and Five Star for “want(ing) to abandon the euro…shar(ing) conspiracy theories about bankers, vaccines and the 9/11 attacks.”

There’s nothing conspiratorial about destructive euro policy, banker occupation, harmful vaccines, and 9/11 mother-of-all false flags.

The ruling undemocratic Dem Party (PD) was soundly trounced with only 19% support. The Times reinvented its agenda, saying it was modernizing Italy’s economy, pulling it out of recession – ignoring hard times for most Italians, including high unemployment and low wages for most workers.

At around 32%, youth unemployment in Italy is highest among EU countries. GDP so far failed to match its 2007 level. Around 1.5 million Italians emigrated since 2008.

The nation continues suffering from economic stagnation, deplorable governance and euro bondage responsible, things unlikely to change ahead under whatever new government is formed.

Abandoning the euro would be a good start, regaining Italy’s sovereign independence, the Times and neocon/CIA house organ Washington Post frantic over the possibility, WaPo saying:

“…Italy could join Central European states that have staked out a hostile stance toward the European Union – and liberal values more generally.”

There’s nothing “liberal” about Germany-dominated Brussel policy, ordinary people throughout the eurozone harmed to benefit bankers and other corporate interests.

League and Five Star leaders oppose EU sanctions on Russia. They favor normalized relations over hostile ones, polar opposite US/Brussels policy.

Italian election results reflected majority opposition against neoliberal harshness.

Like earlier elections in Italy and other Western countries, policies pursued by whatever ruling coalition emerges are likely to disappoint disaffected voters.

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Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the CRG, Correspondent of Global Research based in Chicago.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”


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Articles by: Stephen Lendman

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.

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