Italian politics and elections - news and discussion

[yield]

Italian populist parties rekindle talks to form government
Salvini pushes for new elections but bonds rally on hopes that vote can be avoided

Italy’s president has attempted to broker an eleventh-hour deal between the country’s two largest populist parties to avoid another destabilising national election, helping Italian assets recover from a sell-off that rattled investors worldwide.

Sergio Mattarella, who triggered this week’s crisis by blocking the appointment of a Eurosceptic finance minister proposed by the two parties last Sunday, held informal meetings with leaders of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the far-right League on Wednesday evening.

Although Mr Mattarella was unable to reach agreement to form a new coalition, he gave both parties more time to reach a deal, prompting Carlo Cottarelli, the former IMF official who had been tasked with forming an interim technocratic government on Monday, to put his own plans on hold.

The rekindling of coalition talks triggered a rally in Italian bonds and stocks. The yield on the politically sensitive two-year note tumbled about 1.15 percentage points to 1.49 per cent as prices rose. Milan’s FTSE MIB stock market index closed up 2.1 per cent.

Investors have been unsettled by the prospect of snap elections, which will be seen as a referendum on Italy’s membership in the euro — a tacit acknowledgment that a currency union once described as invaluable may, in fact, be voluntary.

Mr Cottarelli’s stopgap government was not expected to win a parliamentary vote of confidence, trigging elections as early as July.

But after two meetings on Wednesday, Mr Cottarelli and Mr Mattarella agreed to a delay to see if the talks between Five Star and the League might come to fruition, according to one senior official close to the discussions.

Matteo Salvini, the 45-year-old head of the League, has seen his support grow in recent opinion polling, and told campaign rallies in Tuscany and Liguria that he wanted to quickly go to another election.

“We have consistency and loyalty,” he said. “We were ready to go last week and they didn’t allow us.”

Luigi Di Maio, the Five Star leader whose party finished ahead in the election in March, has led efforts to resurrect the coalition, saying on Wednesday night that Paolo Savona, the 81-year-old Eurosceptic proposed for the finance ministry, could be moved to another job.

“There are two paths ahead: either we launch the [coalition] government with a reasonable solution or we vote right away,” Mr Di Maio said.

An aide to the Italian president said the offer to shift Mr Savona to a different ministry was being “evaluated with great attention”.

The choice of finance minister remains the biggest sticking point in talks between the two parties. If no deal is reached, Italy would be heading towards a new election. While Five Star wants parliament to be dissolved immediately, triggering a summer vote, the League is pushing for a poll in the autumn.

The renewed hope of a peaceful end to the political infighting helped Rome sell €5.6bn of fresh debt at auction on Wednesday morning, though at a higher borrowing cost than at its previous similar sale. It paid a 2.32 per cent yield for five-year debt, and 3 per cent for 10-year paper.

The turmoil in Italy continues to ripple through global markets. Following Tuesday’s global sell-off, Asian bourses were hit on Wednesday morning, with Tokyo’s Nikkei index falling 1.5 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index weakening 1.4 per cent.

A rush to buy US Treasuries as an investment haven amid the turmoil eased. The yield on the 10-year US Treasuries was up just 7bp to 2.85 per cent by early afternoon in New York on Wednesday.

On currency markets, the euro rallied on reduced Italian fears, rising more than 1 per cent to nearly $1.17 on Wednesday.

tldr - capital strike if they vote incorrectly

 

[magneze]

Just finishing "How Capitalism will end". The chapters covering how capitalism interacts with democracy and the EU have never seemed more pertinent.

 

[gosub]

Hope that dead ender remainers take a good, hard look at this. Except I suppose that they will, and like always they will draw exactly the wrong conclusion.

Italy can't blame Brussels for its descent into the abyss | Phillip Inman

 

[Riklet]

Arggggg. Reform, reform, reform.

 

[DotCommunist]

Italy can't blame Brussels for its descent into the abyss | Phillip Inman

Italy is the architect of its Byzantine public sector structures, bizarre tax rules and sclerotic employment regulations. Not those who designed the euro or the EU.

heard this line before over greece, similar line. They never paid no taxes. 'Thats why they had to get financially waterboarded, not the EU's fault if they can't play by the rules is it?' attitude.

 

[gosub]

Arggggg. Reform, reform, reform.

As long as its not reform of the EU.....Germany doesn't want to play that game understandably

 

[Flavour]

Mattarella knows he's fucked. What a waste of time. Fucking Di Maio, what a vacuous tosser. Salvini is going to be running the country. That is bad news for everyone, especially women and immigrants.

 

[gosub]

Mattarella knows he's fucked. What a waste of time. Fucking Di Maio, what a vacuous tosser. Salvini is going to be running the country. That is bad news for everyone, especially women and immigrants.

how many months til Burliconi's ban from public office runs out?

 

[Flavour]

it's already up. Since May 12, actually.

e2a: not that it makes an enormous amount of difference. he's been eclipsed by salvini in the "centro-destra" coalition

 

[gosub]

it's already up. Since May 12, actually.

e2a: not that it makes an enormous amount of difference. he's been eclipsed by salvini in the "centro-destra" coalition

It wasn't up 2013 + 6 years is not 2018

 

[Jeremiah18.17]

Hopefully Salvini has taken a step too far here and will come a cropper -
Italian populist in row over counting Roma

 

[Flavour]

Salvini, the leader of the Lega (previously Lega Nord), deputy PM and Ministro dell'interno (Home Secretary) in Italy, has clearly become the most powerful politician in the country since forming a governing coalition (as the minor partner!) with the vacuous anti-vax populists of the Five Star Movement (neither left, nor right... But above!)

Salvini's major policy focus is immigration, specifically refugee boats arriving from North Africa. He has closed ports to boats with migrants on board, most famously last year to a ship known as the Diciotti, which eventually landed in Sicily after a long delay.

Now, in a surprising and potentially positive development, the court of Catania in Sicily have opened a case against Salvini for refusing to let the boat disembark. As a minister, the Senate will decide if it should go to trial. A democratic vote on this matter will take place, and almost everyone's vote can be predicted, except for the Five Star senators.

In the past, the Five Star have always said that any politician under investigation should resign, but now if they were to vote for Salvini to go on trial, the coalition government would collapse. This is not really in Five Star's interest as any future election would probably see them lose vote share to Salvini's Lega. On the other hand, if they vote against the trial, protecting Salvini directly, it will be an important indicator of how the effective balance of power has shifted within the government, so that the junior coalition partner (whom only 20% voted for, of those that did vote) runs the country.

Italy’s Salvini faces trial for ‘aggravated kidnapping’ over blocked migrants

 

[Flavour]

There is also another boat anchored off the coast of Sicily - the Sea Watch 3 - with 47 refugees on board. Again it is being refused entry. Salvini has told the Netherlands to take the people on board (the ship has a Dutch flag but the NGO running it is German). Again the courts in Sicily are kicking off about it.

 

[Flavour]

Matteo Salvini and the "Five Star" mayor of Turin both exuberant as the police forcibly evict the Asilo Occupato, the last of the major anarchist squats in the city centre. Bizzarely, one of the more right-wing of Italy's newspapers, the Corriere della Sera, had clearly had a fairly sympathetic obituary for the Asilo ready for some time, which I link below.

Torino, i 24 anni dell’Asilo Occupato. La lotta agli sfratti e la guerra al Cie

Tomorrow there will be a protest in the center of Turin against the eviction and the accompanying arrests (seven people at last count)... I expect there will be many more arrests and of course an enormous presence of riot police.

I know this isn't really about Salvini but got nowhere else to put it. Other "Five Star" politicians have criticized the action, asking why this was considered a priority for the public purse, rather than combatting the mafia or the rising levels of poverty in the city.

 

[yield]

Italian government defuses row over rail link, halts tenders
MILAN, March 9 (Reuters) -

Italy’s prime minister halted on Saturday the launch of tenders for a high-speed rail link to France, defusing a dispute within the ruling coalition over the project that had threatened to bring down the government.

The multibillion-euro TAV project (Treno Alta Velocita) is backed by Matteo Salvini’s League party but strongly opposed by its coalition partner, 5-Star Movement, which argues that Italy’s share of the funding would be better spent upgrading existing roads and bridges.

Italian PM Giuseppe Conte ignores US warnings and pushes for closer cooperation with China’s belt and road plan
12/03/19

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has overruled the foreign ministry and joined right-wing Eurosceptics in his coalition cabinet in calling for closer cooperation with China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”, sources told the South China Morning Post.

In a move that Washington warned would damage Italy’s standing with its neighbours, the Conte government is understood to be planning to give Chinese companies greater access to the port of Trieste – one of the region’s busiest, with access to the Mediterranean – as well as further cooperation between the leading electricity providers of both countries.

White House National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis said the belt and road scheme was unlikely to help Italy economically and could significantly damage the country’s international image.

I'll admit never thought this government would last.

 

[yield]

Italy eyes loans from China’s development bank for BRI projects
https://www. ft.com/content/29f4814c-467e-11e9-a965-23d669740bfb (paywalled) Outline - Read & annotate without distractions
FT March 15, 2019

Italy eyes loans from China's development bank for BRI projects.
Italy is considering borrowing from China's Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as part of plans to become the first G7 country to endorse Beijing's contentious "Belt and Road" global investment programme.
Several central and eastern European countries have already endorsed the BRI, but Italy would be the first G7 country to do so.
The planned agreement between Beijing and Rome is "Very important for Italy because it will allow our companies to be key players in the Belt and Road Initiative plan, to have more leverage in the Chinese market, both to attract investments and to enter that market as protagonists", Mr di Stefano said.

The two countries are planning to "Explore all opportunities for co-operation" in Italy and "Third countries", according to the five-page draft accord obtained by the Financial Times.
The draft shows that Italy is in advanced talks with China and resisting pressure from Washington and Brussels to drop those discussions at a time of rising concerns over Beijing's ambitions and potential security threat.
The Italian government intends to sign a so-called "Memorandum of understanding" on the BRI on March 22, when Xi Jinping, China's president, visits Rome.
The potential involvement of the AIIB, a multilateral development bank led by Beijing, suggests that Italy is seeking ways to allay Brussels' concerns by making the accord compliant with EU rules.

This is because the AIIB lends according to international standards, including competitive tenders and environmental impact studies, that are required inside the EU. "The potential involvement of the AIIB in the BRI in Italy is a game changer," said one EU diplomat in Brussels.
"Without the AIIB's involvement in lending to projects, it would be difficult for the BRI to fly in a key EU member state."
Until now, the overwhelming majority of BRI infrastructure loans have come from the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China, two bilateral lenders that grant loans in secrecy that are almost always tied to construction contracts for Chinese companies.
China's BRI plans aim to finance and build infrastructure in more than 80 countries in Eurasia, the Middle East and Africa.

 

[Flavour]

Interestingly, man-of-the-moment and Grey-zone neo-fascist Matteo Salvini, minister for the interior, is against the plan. Again, like trump ditching the TPP / TTIP accords, the forces of reactionary conservative politics are increasingly protectionist and therefore come into conflict with the neoliberal project. But there's more than one capitalist world domination project on the burner, and Italian flirtation with the Chinese way may be seen as a reaction to the bullying (over national budgets) by the EU.

Wonder if it will go ahead in the way China would like (Ie as advantageous in their favor as possible) and what the EU will be able to do about it

 

[yield]

Italy probes death of Silvio Berlusconi 'bunga bunga' sex trial witness
16/03/19

Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the death of Imane Fadil, a Moroccan-born model who testified in one of the inquiries linked to former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's "bunga bunga" parties.

Fadil, 34, died in Milan's Humanitas hospital on March 1. She had been undergoing treatment since January 29 for symptoms of poisoning, Milan prosecutor Francesco Greco said, according to the ANSA news agency.

ANSA quoted Greco as claiming that the Humanitas hospital did not report Fadil's complaints or symptoms that were consistent with the poisoning while she was being treated. He said he was only informed of her death when her attorney reported it.

The hospital said in a statement that it provided toxicological exams to prosecutors when they were completed on March 6. ANSA quoted unnamed officials who said the results showed a "mix of radioactive substances." The official autopsy is still pending.

a "mix of radioactive substances."

 

[tim]

Italy probes death of Silvio Berlusconi 'bunga bunga' sex trial witness
16/03/19


a "mix of radioactive substances."

«Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga come è, bisogna che tutto cambi»

If we want everything to stay as it is, everything has to change.

Regimes come and go but the squalid reality remains the same. I was living in Italy in the early 90's when the postwar regime collapsed. 3 or for years later Berlusconi and his lega Nord and Fascist allies took power. Now we have the comic and The Lega. Whoever's in power the shame brutal shit for those who cause trouble.

 

[yield]

«Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga come è, bisogna che tutto cambi»

If we want everything to stay as it is, everything has to change.

Regimes come and go but the squalid reality remains the same. I was living in Italy in the early 90's when the postwar regime collapsed. 3 or for years later Berlusconi and his lega Nord and Fascist allies took power. Now we have the comic and The Lega. Whoever's in power the shame brutal shit for those who cause trouble.

True. I've read The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. M5S are a joke. Got a lot of italian friends who just want the nepotism and corruption out of everyday life.

 

[teqniq]

Italy probes death of Silvio Berlusconi 'bunga bunga' sex trial witness
16/03/19


a "mix of radioactive substances."

Yes I saw this on Twitter. Totally disgusting. Yet again i will be amazed if anyone is held to account for this.

 

[Flavour]

In "broken clock right twice a day" moment, Salvini obstinately shit-talks about the deal signed between Italy and China, which is part of the wider Belt and Road initiative to expand Chinese economic power overseas. I have a feeling the five star movement have done this partly as a "fuck you" to the EU for being so hard-nosed over approving the Italian budget. A short sighted strategy, obviously, if it means selling ports and companies to China. Reminds me of trump being against the TPP / TTIP stuff.

 

[treelover]

Far-right Italian deputy Matteo Salvini takes Basilicata in south

 

[rekil]

Carabiniere gets 4 yrs, 8 mts for Florence rape - English

Following up on this disgusting case led me to Salvini's predictably shitty take on it.

“In Italy there are more than 100,000 Carabinieri who do their job well.They have all my admiration, woe to those who touch them. If two of these in Florence, uniformed and on duty, had sex with two girls, even if with consent, they made a huge mistake and should immediately leave the job and the uniform.Should it have been rape, they should be treated like all the other infamous people who put their hands on women or children. Allow me, however, until proven otherwise, to have doubts that it was "rape", and to consider the whole story very, very, very strange. Am I the only one who thinks so?”

 

[Sasaferrato]

Salvini, the leader of the Lega (previously Lega Nord), deputy PM and Ministro dell'interno (Home Secretary) in Italy, has clearly become the most powerful politician in the country since forming a governing coalition (as the minor partner!) with the vacuous anti-vax populists of the Five Star Movement (neither left, nor right... But above!)

Salvini's major policy focus is immigration, specifically refugee boats arriving from North Africa. He has closed ports to boats with migrants on board, most famously last year to a ship known as the Diciotti, which eventually landed in Sicily after a long delay.

Now, in a surprising and potentially positive development, the court of Catania in Sicily have opened a case against Salvini for refusing to let the boat disembark. As a minister, the Senate will decide if it should go to trial. A democratic vote on this matter will take place, and almost everyone's vote can be predicted, except for the Five Star senators.

In the past, the Five Star have always said that any politician under investigation should resign, but now if they were to vote for Salvini to go on trial, the coalition government would collapse. This is not really in Five Star's interest as any future election would probably see them lose vote share to Salvini's Lega. On the other hand, if they vote against the trial, protecting Salvini directly, it will be an important indicator of how the effective balance of power has shifted within the government, so that the junior coalition partner (whom only 20% voted for, of those that did vote) runs the country.

Italy’s Salvini faces trial for ‘aggravated kidnapping’ over blocked migrants

Rather like the SNP abrogating a promise on the maximum level of Council Tax increase, because the six Green list MSPs have them over a barrel?

 

[Flavour]

Carabiniere gets 4 yrs, 8 mts for Florence rape - English

Following up on this disgusting case led me to Salvini's predictably shitty take on it.

Welcome to the Italian news cycle. Disgusting thing happens. If non-Italian found responsible, Salvini moves for deportation. If Italian, Salvini questions the story.

 

[Flavour]

Salvini as new leader of far-right pan-European alliance in Euro elections? He already is the most recognized far-right leader in Europe, despite not even being PM (though his relative power as Home Sec + Deputy PM when the actual PM is little more than a compromise puppet is enormous)... more bad news simultaneously for migrants in Italy, but also for the EU project

 

[Flavour]

Small update on Salvini.
The biggest book fair in Italy is called Salone del Libro, it's held every year in Turin.
This year, the publishing house of CasaPound (3rd wave fash) have published a book which is really just a long interview with Salvini.
The publishers were supposed to be present at Salone del Libro but after pressure from left-wing authors/groups (including the Wu Ming collective, Carlo Ginzburg, the cartoon artist Zerocalcare, and others) the 5-star led local council pulled CasaPound's permission and they were not allowed to present their book at the event.
Salvini meanwhile is on continuous tour of the country as he has been since being elected ... he is the Deputy PM and Home Secretary. There is a lot of protest against him wherever he goes but unfortunately I think we can expect his party, Lega, to win yet more votes in the Euro elections.

 

[teqniq]

Corruption. Who would've thunk it?

The Russian oil allegations gripping Italy

 

[Flavour]

nothing will come of it. mark my words. everything is going salvini's way. he's more popular than before the election. the five star movement are fucked and will be wiped out next election. Lega will be the largest party in the country. Salvini will be PM. the russians will do everything they can to help that happen.