February 3, 2021 - 11:44am
In 2018, the Italian people voted for change. The centre-Left bloc led by Matteo Renzi was comprehensively rejected — losing 227 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Two populist parties — the Five Star Movement and the League — won a majority of seats between them and formed a new coalition government.
Together the partners chose a university professor called Giuseppe Conte to serve as PM. In 2019 the Coalition partners fell out. The League was booted out of government and Conte cobbled together a new coalition composed of Five Star and their former enemies on the Europhile centre-left.
Now, that coalition has collapsed too. Renzi was determined to oust Conte and finally got his way. However, Renzi doesn’t have the support to get the top job himself. Instead, the political establishment has turned to Mario Draghi, the former President of the European Central Bank.
So, to recap: the Italian people give Eurosceptic populists an absolute majority in 2018, but by 2021 the PM chosen by the resulting coalition is replaced by the Eurocrats’ Eurocrat. And all without the inconvenience of another general election! This is not democracy.
Of course, democracy may yet throw a spanner in the works.
Five Star and the League still hold a majority of seats between them. Draghi will not be able to form a government without one of the two parties. This is unlikely to be the League — a party of the hard Right. So that leaves Five Star, whose ‘broad tent’ populism is more adaptable. And yet it would a stunning irony if this anti-establishment party, which swept to office on a wave of people power, bow the knee to the ultimate establishment functionary.
However, if they force a general election instead, the likely beneficiaries are the League and the Brothers of Italy — another national populist outfit.
Indeed, the choice facing the Italian people as a whole is not an enviable one. They must either submit to the EU’s viceroy or turn to the democratic, but dodgy, Right.
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SubscribeWhen will the so-called left/liberals understand that it is their distaste for the nation state, their dislike of ordinary people, their disdain of the views of the majority that are sending people to right-wing parties? To add insult to injury, they describe any party to the right of centre as “extreme right” in an obvious attempt to smear anyone who supports them.
Those Italians politicians were elected by the Italian people.
So, direct rule from Brussels again. For how long will the Italian people put up with this?
How did you come up with direct rule from Brussels? Draghi can only be PM if the political parties in Italy (the ones that were elected) sign on to the deal
Who do you think Draghi works for?
For the ungrateful Italian people and irresponsible Italian (democratically elected) politicians.
“……………the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?”
Italy has elected many governments (60 since WW2)! Surely by now we should try the other way…just once.
He’s a clever pragmatist.
When the EU toppled Berlusconi because they suspected him of wanting to take Italy out of the euro, the next 4 PMs were EU appointed. Salvini broke the mould.
Salvini wasn’t PM. He also promised his voters that he WOULD NOT join 5 Stars in a coalition government. Guess what he did?
ascribing to the EU the toppling of Berlusconi is like ascribing the control of the world to shape-shanging lizards. Pure fantasia!
Well they’ve put up with it for most of the last 10 or 12 years or so. And they will probably continue to do so, whether they vote for it or not.
Why is the right “dodgy”?
Can’t speak for the author but the right/Salvini (or the left) in Italy has proven itself to be unserious about governance.
I would vote for Salivini but that is the problem with populists – they are not serious about the affairs of the state. Tweeting is easier and much more fun.
Salvini did show himself to be serious. That is why he got toppled.
He pulled his party out of the government hoping to force an election.
Basic facts should not be hard to grasp.
He was the only minster who did what he said he would do
He also said that he would not enter in coalition with 5 stars during 2018 election. Guess what he did?!
It isn’t. The establishment is dodgy. It routinely smears the orthodox right as “extreme” whilst pursuing its own Utopian, extremist policies in defiance of public opinion. One only has to look at the conduct of the EU with regard to referenda, governments it doesn’t like and economic policies of which it disapproves to see that. And on migration, when it is clear that unprecedented, transformative levels of demographic change are destabilising society; when it is obvious that they bring heavy security risks in their train; when it is plain that they involve no economic benefit, all the left-establishment can do is to engage in the nastiest smears of all. And why does it persist in such damaging procedures? Because it is – essentially – Marxist, or “left-modernist” to use Eric Kaufman’s useful term. It has an extremist, anti-democratic agenda of its own. This is not a “conspiracy theory”; it merely identifies a massive case of “trahison des clercs”, or a process of ideological colonisation taking placing spontaneously within the ranks of the elite. And current democratic arrangements have proven pitifully slow in halting that process. But they must if we are to enjoy what Douglas Murray has described as a “soft landing”.
I was about to make the point. They merely wish to control their own borders, make their own laws and produce their own steel and medicines etc.
Support for leaving the EU is now running at about 45% in Italy. This is much higher than support for Brexit in, say, 2014. Crucially, unlike the UK, there is substantial support among the young for leaving the EU, because they have seen what the euro has done to their job prospects etc.
So those Italians don’t want the freedom to move to Germany ?
Italian governments keeps savings Alitalia (4 times as of 2021) – and yet all the polls (that you like to quote) show that the Italian people want nothing to do with the company!
And the same applies to the steel industry…
And who doesn’t want the freedom to move to Germany (to work as a waiter or shop assistant)?
Clearly the Italians do. And quite a few Brits (Berlin).
The losers in Sunderland didn’t have it (being losers and all that) in them to go “out there” and use Freedom of Movement.
Still sneering and scoffing at your own people?
It is called the truth!
Thats the truth according to you eh?
That’ll be why there are so many EU citizens in losers’ Britain compared with Brits in the wonderful EU, of course there are as many Brits in Australia as in the EU. Mind you how does wanting to live in your own community make you a loser? I suspect most of those EU citizens in the UK would rather be at home with their families in Spain, Greece, Poland or indeed Italy if their economy could offer them a decent job
Those people that migrated (we have many studies about migration) to UK are go getters.
Living and working for 2/3 years in St. Anton (Austria) is not Gulag Archipelago.
Those EU Migrants (BTW) are mostly in places like London and not Blackpool or Sunderland.
You can “heroically defend” the British people or – crazy idea but give it a try – you can ask “why didn’t British workers take advantage of Freedom of Movement”?
Perhaps you should consider the possibility that most people like to live in their own community with their own family and friends and in their own language and culture; people are not just economic units of production. You seem to be one of those people who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing, as the saying goes. Most of the EU economic migrants would probably have liked to do the same if their own economies hadn’t been ravaged by things such as decades of communism and its aftermath, or more recent ideological idiocies such as the Euro.
Don’t worry, I am sure Mrs Merkel has told Mrs Fonda Lying who to appoint.
It will be with the blassing of that “hard left”, “dodgy” Five Star party, who are more “adaptable”
By the way what does “adaptable” mean in this context?
Ignore democracy?
How do you know that?
Adaptable means trim, trim, trim to stay in power with the globalists.
Quite apart from the issue of bowing to the Viceroy of Eurodom, Draghi was known at the ECB for making his decisions in quite a lonesome way, not really consulting very many people before acting. Just to add an extra little anti-democratic “frisson” into the mix.
No-one else could have managed what Draghi managed at the ECB.
Well quite. I think he’ll be the proud holder of the world record in can kicking for some time yet.
The article is rather misleading.
The (formerly known as Northern) League came third in the elections and they are certainly not natural allies of the 5 star movement.
The way the article is phrased makes it sound like and anti-establishment block had been elected, but that is not so.
The first Conte government started after rather prolonged discussions and was far from being a done deal.
They also promised their voters that they would not enter in coalition with each other – but they did.
Don’t expect from Unherd (or the commentators here) basic grasp of facts. Like the woke that they like to mock commentators here are all about “feelings over facts”.
Oh, absolutely.
I think they would get together pretty much with anybody these days.
The Italian people can choose to vote for the ‘dodgy’ right or not as they see fit. It isn’t the ‘dodgy’ right who destroyed democracy in Italy, it’s the establishment, the EU and its local collaborators. That’s why Italy hasn’t had a democratically elected PM since the last one was deposed in an EU/Markel coup
Yes, Berlusconi (democratically elected by the Italian people) was such a success story!
That should surely be their choice, but clearly you don’t support democracy, although I’d also suggest that your favoured alternatives haven’t turned out too well either
‘He’s an effective compromiser’ is a compliment in Italy. As in England. Unlike the France or Germany for example. The English, however , have a line in the sand; if you push over that, the Englishman removes all compromise from the table (and Brexits). The Italian will compromise til the cows come home; that’s why he always ends up a mess.
How many coalition governments have ruled over Germany since unification?
Draghi is a bit different from the usual run of the mill globalist. He is competent, for a start.
This is an awful article. First, there is an obvious failure to understand the Italian constitution. If “this is not democracy”, then the problem is the constitution, not this particular change of government, because the constitution requires the president to see whether another government can be formed before “elezioni anticipate” are held. Second, since the current Italian state began shortly after WW2 ended, there have been a huge number of changes of government, most of which had nothing to do with the results of a parliamentary election. and most of them have been “rimpasti”, reshuffles; the Democrazia Cristiana played musical chairs with ministries for decades. So this is the way things are done there. Why protest now? Does “unherd” have irons in the fire?
Italy seems to be on a clear trajectory where at some point it will leave the Euro *by mistake * probably, if not the EU. The lack of any real internal debate in the EU about the possibility that they may just have some faults; that Britain wasn’t just the 100% at fault partner in the breakdown that ended in Brexit, makes it almost inevitable crises will keep recurring in various countries that the EU will keep responding to in the same way.
That isn’t a stable position, and currently there are almost more countries unhappy with their lot than happy.
It’s possible the vaccination mess, were it to extend far past a point where the UK was actually unlocking and London and all our other cities opening up while Europe still had some lockdown or suppression measures in place, then that could trigger further upheaval sooner than many seem to imagine.
Does anybody know what proportion of the people vote in a general election in Italy?
73% in 2018
I’ll never forgive Draghi for helping block Eurostat incorporating an owner-occupied housing (OOH) component based on net acquisitions in the HICP. He doesn’t deserve to be Prime Minister of Italy. He doesn’t deserve any kind of political career. He shouldn’t write his memoirs. If he does, I won’t read them.
What a load of crap!
5Stars (the biggest winner of the last election) and La Lega (3rd biggest party) promised their voters that they would NOT enter in coalition with each other. But they did. Was that undemocratic?
Coalitions is how Italian governments have always worked.
In the meantime Draghi has to save Italy from Italians.
What a profoundly bigoted, offensive, stupid thing to say!
Did i trigger you?
Italy is Italy because of Italians (warts and all that…).
No. You simply disgusted me. And if Italy owes her character to her people then who are you or anyone else to presume to know better than they what is good for them?
I never presumed to know what is best for Italians or Italy. It is simply my opinion and I am fully aware that no Italian cares at all.
But surely your words are the truth eh?
Out of 55 comments posted here I have blocked 21. They are all from Jeremy Smith.
He is best blocked and ignored.
Agreed.
Draghi is a nightmare,he’ll impose austerity and privatisations crushing the italian economy.
What you call austerity (and Italy will not get any) I would call it generational responsibility.
What we have now is best described by the story of Saturn eating his children – Goya has a fantastic painting on the subject.
Lega is the THIRD party.
I went to check in case I remembered wrongly, but indeed the League came third, not second in 2018.
You are right.