A Trumpian movement gains power in Italy and could shake EU
Toni Iwobi, seen here on on March 9, 2018, in Milan, is Italy's first black senator. Credit: AFP / Getty Images / Marco Bertorello
The most recent election results from Italy may tell us something useful in the United States.
That is: What we call Trumpist, nation-first, populist, or Brexit-style movements continue making gains in other places against candidates and officials of the center-left.
The phenomenon is alive and well and does not appear to be burning out.
The Italian economy is among Europe’s largest four. The populist Five Star Movement got the best results among parties in the parliamentary system. And the party called the League, which pushes to stop Italy’s big migrant influx, announced it will form part of a center-right ruling coalition. (No single party or coalition got the 40 percent needed to govern outright.)
Notably, the election delivered Italy’s first black senator — Toni Iwobi, originally from Nigeria, who campaigned under the slogan “stop the invasion.”
Iwobi told the Guardian last week: “Nobody in this world can stop people moving, it’s in the human DNA. But we are against illegal immigration.”
Moreover, the election results are widely believed to pose a bigger threat to the European Union than the Brexit (or “Leave”) process in the United Kingdom.
Critics both left and right called “deluded” the reaction of EU Budget Commissioner Gunther Oettinger who was quoted as saying: “The Italians did not vote against the EU.”
“For the EU Commission it was clear that Europe’s asylum rules to relieve countries where the most refugees arrive should be changed.”
For years the country has dealt with many migrants sailing over from Africa, and the nation’s navy has performed numerous rescues at sea.
It may sound paradoxical, but a border-porous, international nationalist movement has been underway.
Trump’s expelled political aide, Steve Bannon, was reported to be in Italy as part of the effort to make it grow. He told The New York Times:
“The Italian people have gone farther, in a shorter period of time, than the British did for Brexit and the Americans did for Trump.”
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
