Or is that #6218? So, just for a change, we've moved on from Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Greece again... and the latest shenanigans are in Italy. Italy has a lot of debt, and their economy has not been doing well under the Euro. Successive technocratic governments have dutifully followed orders issued from Berlin and Brussels to make things worse and of course Italians have been getting a little sick of that. So, in an election in March they gave the traditional establishment parties a bit of a kicking. At the top of the pile the electorate returned the Five Star Movement and League (formerly Northern League), two populist parties with plans to change things including by spending money on stimulus and reforming the Euro, but also (mostly in the latter case) with plans to deport half a million migrants. They spent some time negotiating a program and having agreed one went to the Italian President Sergio Matteralla asking him to let them form a government. The position of President is largely ceremonial but appointing the government is one of his powers. Now, did Matteralla refuse appointment of the interior minister due to their extreme xenophobia to force them to at least reconsider that policy? Did he fuck. Nope the Italian President, in the pocket of Wolfgang Schauble, Mario Draghi and Jean-Claude Juncker declared that their choice of Finance Minister was unacceptable because his position on the Euro might spook investors - effectively declaring that the election result didn't matter. This is outrageous since every sensible economist in the world believes that the Euro needs to be reformed. And doubly so since it comes from the ceremonial head of state whose constitutional role is little more extensive than the Queen of England. He (in reality the European PTB) is now trying to impose a government of the discredited establishment, but that's not going to win the required votes in the new parliament so it will be interim only. And there will probably be new elections. Having handed racist scumbags the chances to posture as defenders of democracy, I think we can safely predict that they will get more votes. And then what? The Euro is taking a beating in the markets as we speak. How will the banking elites neuter the threat of democracy this time?
The Italian national government is largely a joke. The regional and provincial governments are the ones getting stuff done, and to some extent the local communal governments (depending on the town). But obviously the regional and provincial governments have no authority in setting economic policy, so of course Italy is not doing great on that. Still, Italy has a long way to fall before reaching the crisis levels we saw with Greece and Spain at least.
First of all, @RickDeckard ... your post reads like something from a raging alt-right blog run by a 13 year old conspiracy nut in rural Uzbekistan. Since when are you into sinister shadow powers controlling everything from dark backroom? Second, this 'crisis' is - once again - largely one of perception up until now. Hysterical media creates hysteria. Even though the mix of hypernationalist Lega and the CS clown school is dangerous, they'll probably be chased out of parliament by an angry mob before they can doom the country to third world status (but the nice kind behind a huge wall! Nationalist scum everywhere s!)
