© Alessandro Bianchi / ReutersThe Italian and EU flags fly at the Quirinal Palace in Rome, Italy, on April 4, 2018
Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who was at the forefront of the Brexit campaign, had some words for his old foe Brussels while speaking in front of the European Parliament on Tuesday, particularly in regards to Italy's political crisis.
"They [Italians] question what the euro has done to their economy, they feel they are a victim of the European Union's immigration policies and as a result of all this they voted in a new government, only to find that bullying, hectoring from the European Commission has been listened to by the Italian president and in the last 48 hours their democracy has been traduced," he said.
He was referring to Italian President Sergio Mattarella's rejection of a Euroskeptic finance minister put forth by the coalition formed by the Five Star Movement and Lega parties on Monday. This rejection, and the coalition's refusal to nominate another candidate, led to a crumbling of its government bid and prompted Mattarella to appoint former International Monetary Fund (IMF) official Carlo Cottarelli as interim prime minister.
According to Farage, however, the Italians won't be made to lie down by the EU. "In the past, you managed to bully the Danes, you bullied the Irish, you bullied the Greeks into submission. I suspect with Italy today you've now bitten off more than you can chew. Bring on more elections and bigger Euroskeptic victories," he told the parliament.
However, it's not just Farage and those who align politically with the former UKIP leader who are angered by the way things have unfolded in Italy. Many leftists are also unhappy, including economics professor Yanis Varoufakis, who served as the Greek finance minister from January to July 2015.
"The people of Italy voted against technocrats implementing austerity for the many and socialism for the very, very few. Now they have an IMF apparatchik as PM with a plan to implement more of the same. Could Italy's president have given the xenophobic populists a greater gift?" he tweeted.
He went on to state that preventing the coalition from forming a government and "ushering in an IMF apparatchik" only serves to "guarantee their election with a larger majority soon." The belief that the president's move will only serve to further fuel Euroskeptic sentiment in the country is one shared by many analysts.
University of Milan politics professor Marco Bassani agrees that new elections will have the same outcome as the previous one, but stated that the situation could become a vicious cycle. "Let's say Italians go to the elections in two or three months... clearly the Five Star movement and the Lega Nord will win again. So they will go there with the same list of ministers. So what happens? Will the president say no again? It could go on forever, this is like a stalemate," he told RT.
When asked whether he believes Mattarella's decision was guided by Brussels, he answered in the affirmative. "Was it imposed and was it something that came from Brussels? The answer is yes. I don't know whether it was in a direct way or indirect way."
Both parties of the coalition have spoken out against Mattarella's decision, with Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio calling for the president's impeachment. Lega leader Matteo Salvini, meanwhile, summed his views up by saying: "In a democracy, if we are still in a democracy, there's only one thing to do, let the Italians have their say." He added that Italy is not a "colony" and that "we won't have Germany tell us what to do."
This is what to expect, for whenever a Sovereign Government enters into any treaty, it gives up a little of its sovereignty. When it forms a league, it sets itself up to become a victim of the largest power or group of powers in that group, such as in NATO or The EU, which of course - now more obviously than ever - was 'part of the plan' (the PTB's plan) from the Git-Go.
Below I've listed Three (and more) On Point Books to better understand what's up here. Each discuss how this is done, first is in general and discusses ancient times through the Sixteenth Century; and the latter two are how the IMF plays its game of destruction of individual and individual nations' sovereignty and the last provides details on how the CIA plays that same game on a more immediately lethal level. Without further ado: 2. Confessions of an Economic Hitman , by John Perkins, re the IMF. (Notice their role throughout the above situation.); and,
3. Philip Agee’s 1975 book, Inside the Company: CIA Diary , re his experiences in the CIA destroying civil rights and humans in South America. He also wrote a 2014 book more specifically covering the CIA’s malevolent and thoroughly Naziesque actions in S. America, THE CIA AGAINST LATIN AMERICA,
Finally, brownie points for re-reading Fletcher Prouty’s The Secret Team.
Once done, you'll walk away with a better understanding of the real PTB-Controlled-World than you will achieve by merely keeping up on the details of the PTB's current misadventures here at SOTT, et al.
(Of course, keeping up with honest views of current events are reasonable and should be expected of all competent citizens; even moreso, SOTTites, like you, I hope.
R.C.
P.s., For an honest review of behind the scene events in real time conflicts between nations (then city-states) read Thucydides' "The History of the Peloponnesian War" (also free online) which predates Alexander the Great's era by a century. It's really entertaining and almost a page burner, despite being over 2300 years old.
It's particularly apropos when you read the hubris that led to Athens' ultimate destruction, when, in the midst of one war, it overreached and tried to conquer Sicily. The analogies to the West's current situation are legion.
R.C.
Europe's democracy crisis: The pro-establishment coup in Italy is just a symptom of a larger problem
Before analysing what has just happened in Italy and discussing its likely consequences, it is necessary to say something about the fact of what has just happened. Italy is supposed to be a...RC