Long live Emperor Sergio Mattarella.
The response to the Italian elections in March showed us that European institutions, read Germany’s Fourth Reich, shall be Italy’s rulers, not the regular voters.
The Italians have endured over 16 years of zero economic growth and youth unemployment around 27% or more, without much hope in sight. Their debt is US$4 trillion and growing—an amount that they will never be able to repay.
In fact, Italy’s underlying economic and employment problems are the same now as they were 18 years ago—too much debt and not being economically competitive with Germany.
The Italians have finally had enough and are demanding change. As a result, the March election showed big gains by populist and anti-establishment parties, as well as the worst showing by pro-establishment liberal candidates in the party’s history.
The anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and the right-wing Lega (or League) party were widely considered to be the main victors. M5S gained an unprecedented 33% of the vote and the centre-right coalition, which included Lega, won 37%. In fact, Lega won 18%of the vote—the most votes of any other party within its coalition. Both parties claimed a major victory after the elections, but these results leave Italy with a hung Parliament and the need for a coalition government.
To the chagrin of the EU overlords, both parties are Eurosceptic—that is, they want to move away from the European Union. Both M5S and Lega have called for rewriting treaties with Europe to give Italy more sovereignty and control over their economy, allowing Italy to grow and prosper, rather than atrophy and stagnate in debt servitude to Germany. M5S wants to, contrary to EU rules, impose a 15% flat tax, repudiate most of Italy’s trillions in debt—a massive debt that has suffocated the country and led to a record 132.6% debt to GDP ratio—and dump the failed single currency euro. The party wants to clean up Italy’s dysfunctional and corrupt political system as well as introduce a universal basic income. With the goal of increasing employment rates, Lega has promised to tighten immigration and work towards improving economic growth.
But the EU’s rulers in Brussels are not happy. Comments made by European Budget Commissioner, German Guenther Oettinger to Deutsche Welle best summarises the view of Italy’s overlords towards the election results. Oettinger stated, “The negative development of the markets will lead Italians not to vote much longer for the populists.” In other words, we will punish and steamroll you, just like we did to the plebeians we rule in Greece. You best immediately become servile and obedient.
In response to the EU’s disappointment, Italy’s President, Sergio Mattarella, quickly fell in line with his masters in Brussels. Acting on orders from the EU, Mattarella arbitrarily rejected the formation of a democratically-elected Parliament between the Five Star Movement and the League. Remarkably, upon violating Italy’s Constitution, Mattarella appointed Carlo Cottarelli, an ex-IMF EU loyalist, as Prime Minister for the duration of 2018, unilaterally disregarding the will of the Italian voters.
The message to the Italians is startlingly clear: Italian voters are not allowed to vote against the EU. Your vote will only count if the mindless, tone-deaf, non-elected rulers in Brussels agree with the outcome. The message to the rest of the world is also extremely clear: There is no democracy in the EU. Democracy is dead.
Unfortunately for the EU and Emperor Mattarella, things don’t seem to be going to plan. Apparently, Cottarelli has failed to garner Parliamentary support to set up a government. He was unable to present Mattarella with a list of EU-friendly ministers that could be used to form government. If these parties are unable to compromise and form a government, new elections must be held within 70 days.
Emperor Mattarella’s rejection of the democratically formed coalition has poured petrol on the burning fire of Italian anger and will likely result in Italy holding a referendum on EU membership—the results of which will likely be a landslide victory in favour of Italy’s EU exit. #ITEXIT.
However, the rulers in Brussels will never allow another EU referendum, so Italy may need to be schooled in UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s dystopian world of media bans, snooper’s charters, and secret trials without representation.
Italy’s voters are tired of being ruled by Germany and lied to by politicians who pander to the EU’s bureaucracy in Brussels. The EU strategy—read Germany’s dictate—to hold profligate Southern European countries accountable for odious debt incurred during the last credit crisis will never succeed and will lead to the EU’s failure. The EU banks, which made irresponsible lending decisions, should not have received taxpayer-backed bailouts. They should have gone bankrupt. That’s called capitalism. Crony capitalism, aka unlimited bank bailouts, has destroyed the economies of Southern Europe and future generations of growth. The only solution is default.
The Italian results and the subsequent actions by Emperor Mattarella support what many have been saying for years—the EU is terminally flawed and on life support, with endless bailouts from the European Central Bank and is ultimately destined to fail.
Mitchell Feierstein is CEO of Glacier Environmental Fund and author of Planet Ponzi: How Politicians and Bankers Stole Your Future.