Populist surge in Italy as voters back anti-immigrant, anti-establishment parties

Here is a bit of the story. Complete results will be available shortly, says CNN.

(CNN) Italy is facing a populist uprising after a surge in support for anti-European parties in Sunday’s parliamentary election, however no party received enough votes to rule alone meaning the country will likely enter a period of political deadlock.

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) made significant gains in Sunday’s vote though with 31% of the vote, it doesn’t have enough seats to form government, according to state broadcaster RAI.

The center-right coalition, which includes League — also known as the Northern League — along with former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and the neo-fascist Brothers of Italy, is likely to form the largest bloc in both houses of the country’s parliament, a combined share of votes totaling over 37%.

Of its coalition partners, the anti-immigrant League attracted the largest share of the votes with 18% to Forza Italia’s 14%. The swing toward the League looks set to give the party as many as 123 seats in the lower house, up from 22 seats, a six-fold increase.

As no party secured a majority, the country faces weeks, if not months, of negotiations between groups with competing interests to form a government. Final results are expected to be released at 2 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET).

[….]

If projections are accurate, the result means that Italy could be plunged into months of further political deadlock that could have broader implications for Europe — both the League and the Five Star Movement are anti-EU parties.

Bannon in Italy 2 — Bannon was in Rome this week to cheer on the populists. All fine and dandy, but if he doesn’t want the original Trump populist movement to die in the US, he needs to re-energize/re-organize it, or find someone who will.

The rise of anti-European voices, both on the right and from the anti-establishment M5S, comes as Italians appear increasingly divided over issues such as undocumented immigration contributed to a rancorous campaign.

[….]

The populist parties’ gains in the polls were not lost on US President Donald Trump’s former strategic adviser Steve Bannon, who was in Rome to observe the elections.

Bannon said in an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper that an alliance between the anti-immigrant League party and the populist Five Star Movement was “the ultimate dream.”

“This election is crucial for the global populist movement” he said, saying it was an issue of “sovereignty” for Italians opposed to immigration.

More here.
Maybe there is hope for Italy, but they need to get tough and stop the migrant boats, send migrants back to where they came from and get busy having Italian babies! It is demography stupid!
My complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive is here.

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