The Italy of Sandro Pertini, Enrico Berlinguer, and Aldo Moro managed to enter the dance of the beasts.
More than half the voters supported the Five Star Movement and the League of the North. Our neighbouring country, which is supposed to be one of the leaders of Europe, is entering a period of a lack of governance, as it appears very difficult to strike a viable governmental cooperation.
The anti-system current that has appeared in Europe and the US over the last years has now included Italian voters. They trusted parties and leaders who offered groundless promises of tax cuts, pledges to limit migration, and an anti-European rhetoric.
An important European country is entering an adventure with an unknown destination. That is a development that will impact on the entire European project.
The return to isolationism and the strengthening of the nationalism represented by the winners of the Italian elections is not, however, a solution to the problems faced by Italy, or Europe more broadly. The exit from the euro which until yesterday was propagated by the League of the North and Pepe Grillo’s party is neither simple nor easy, as the Greek case demonstrated.
It has often been shown that disappointment and rage are not good advisors for those who suffer, or see their quality of life deteriorating.
The voters who turned their back on the “old” political system because it did not protect them, because it did not limit migration, or because it was corrupt, will realise very quickly that the promises the winners of the elections gave are problematic, and cannot be implemented.
However, those who dominate and play a hegemonic role in Europe today must realise that this anti-system eruption has real causes. The constant drop in income, the growth of insecurity, the fixation with austerity policies, will all trigger, if they continue, ever greater social and political explosions.
The contempt for politics and the leveling of traditional parties are not a good omen for anyone. The European project urgently needs injections of renewal and social justice.
Developments in Italy are yet another warning bell. Let them hear it before it is too late.
