Matteo Salvini - leader of Lega and the center-right coalition
(Wikicommons)
What do I think of the Italian
election results? How well do they bear out the predictions I made last
November? In some ways, the nationalists did better than I expected, and in
some ways worse. First the good news.
Western Europe's first nationalist government
Lega Nord (now simply Lega) went into the election as a junior
partner in a center-right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi. It is now the
senior partner. Berlusconi's party, Forza
Italia, did poorly, getting only 14% of the popular vote in comparison to Lega's 17%. Given that 4% of all votes
went to the other nationalist party in the coalition, Fratelli d'Italia, we see that Italian support for the center-right
is much more nationalist than conservative.
With a plurality of seats in
the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, Matteo Salvini will likely form the
next government. He will bring a new perspective to the job of Italian prime
minister:
Matteo Salvini embraces a very critical view of the European Union (EU), especially of the euro, which he once described a "crime against humanity". Salvini is also opposed to illegal immigration and the EU's management of asylum seekers.
On economic issues, he supports flat tax, tax cuts, fiscal federalism, protectionism and, to some extent, agrarianism. On social issues, Salvini opposes same-sex marriage, while he supports family values and the legalisation of brothels. In foreign policy he opposed the international embargo against Russia of 2014 and supported an economic opening to Eastern Europe and to countries of the Far East such as North Korea. (Wikipedia 2018)
Lega's success is in contrast to
the situation in France, the Netherlands, and Germany, where nationalist
parties have done well but have never been part of a ruling coalition. We thus
have the strange sight of Angela Merkel looking for coalition partners on the
left and even the far left, while studiously ignoring Alternative für Deutschland, a party that won 13% of the popular
vote in her country's last general election.
Now the bad news:
A hung parliament and false friends
Without a majority in the
Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, the center-right coalition will need
support from the Movimento 5 Stelle
(Five Star Movement), which came second with 33% of the popular vote.
Unfortunately, that party will be far from supportive. It is not at all nationalist—contrary
to what you may have read or heard.
Yes, the co-founder of the
Five Star Movement, "Beppe" Grillo, has called for deportation of
"terrorists" and people with no right to asylum:
"The migratory situation is out of control," Grillo wrote on his blog. "Our country is becoming a place where terrorists come and go and we are not able to recognise and report them and they can wander all over Europe undisturbed thanks to Schengen." "Those who have the right to asylum should stay in Italy, all the others should be repatriated at once, starting from today." "Schengen must be revised," he said, adding it should be suspended "immediately and border controls reinstated" when there is an attack until the suspects have been captured. (ANSA 2016)
Also, the current leader of
the Five Star Movement, Luigi Di Maio, has called for "an immediate stop
to the sea-taxi service", i.e., the ferrying of African migrants to Italy
by NGOs (Reuters 2017).
Tough words. Keep in mind,
however, that similar words have been spoken by conservative politicians
elsewhere—Deport terrorists! No fake refugees! The problem, here, isn't that
such promises have often been broken. The problem is that the issue of
population replacement isn't even being addressed. The deconstruction of Europe
thus continues, and at an ever higher rate.
Furthermore, if we look at
actual party policy, and not personal opinions, we get a different picture of
the Five Star Movement. In 2014 its members voted to decriminalize illegal
immigration:
The Five Star Movement activists say no to the crime of illegal immigration. The majority of votes, which were cast online on Beppe Grillo's blog, were in favor of repealing the crime of illegal immigration. Yes for the repeal: 15,839. No: 9,093. There were 24,932 voters. (Corriere del Sera 2014)
Admittedly, that was four years ago, but only this year Luigi Di Maio reacted angrily when “extremist” remarks were made about immigration by the center-right candidate for Lombardy, Attilio Fontana.
"Berlusconi says that we are worse than the post-communists, that they are moderate and we extremists, but after Fontana's phrase about the white race are we sure that they are the moderates? If they are moderate then I am Gandhi. [...] We want to know if Fontana remains their presidential candidate [for Lombardy]." (ANSA 2018b)
Were Fontana's remarks extremist? Judge for yourself:
This is not an issue of being xenophobic or racist, but a question of being logical or rational. We cannot [accept all asylum seekers] because we won’t all fit in, so we have to make choices. We must decide if our ethnicity, if our white race, if our society, should continue to exist or if it should be wiped out. A serious State should plan and program a situation of this type. It should say how many we consider it right to receive and how many migrants we don't want to allow in, how we want to assist them, what jobs to give them, what homes and schools to give them. At that point, when a government prepares a project of this type, it submits it to its citizens.
It is absolutely unacceptable to say that we have to accept them all. It is a scheme that we must react against, that it is necessary to rebel against. We cannot accept them all because, if we did, we would no longer be ourselves as a social reality, as an ethnic reality. Because there are many more of them than us, and they are much more determined to occupy this territory. (ANSA 2018a; ANSA 2018b)
On March 4, the people passed judgment on Fontana: he was elected governor of Lombardy.
In all this, the Five Star
Movement comes across as being too worried about its image and not sufficiently
concerned about offering a coherent policy. This is a common failing of
populist movements.
Conclusion
With this election, the bloc
of nationalist states has welcomed a new member—a country near the core of the
Western world-system. There is now a continuous stretch of territory from the
Baltic to the Mediterranean where post-nationalism is no longer a “consensus.”
This new reality has not gone
unnoticed, and there will likely be efforts to turn back the clock. The Italian
parliament will become mired in one stalemate after another, and Salvini may
have to go directly to the people, using his bully pulpit to rally support for
his measures. Don't expect to see the Five Star Movement play a
constructive role.
Salvini will also face
determined opposition from the courts, the civil service, and the media—what we
call the deep state. The situation, however, isn't the same as in the United
States, where the elites don’t feel much in common with the American people and
see no reason why they should. If Salvini can present his arguments boldly and
energetically, he will mobilize support even among his country’s elites.
References
ANSA (2018a). White race at risk -
Fontana on migrants (2). Centre-right Lombardy candidate says not question of
racism, ANSAen Politics, January 15
ANSA (2018b). Attilio Fontana si
scusa per la 'razza bianca' ANSAit. Lombardia, January 17
http://www.ansa.it/lombardia/notizie/2018/01/15/fontana-razza-bianca-a-rischio-per-i-migranti_bcda489a-d3fe-49d7-84f8-e20ac2c338ef.html
ANSA (2106). Grillo calls for mass
deportations (2).ANSAen Politics,
December 23
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2016/12/23/grillo-calls-for-mass-deportations-2_c2583737-0f97-4157-a2f3-d2a9137728b6.html
Corriere della Sera. (2014). Grillo,
gli iscritti del M5S dicono no al reato di immigrazione clandestine, January 13
http://www.corriere.it/politica/14_gennaio_13/grillo-lancia-consultazioni-reato-clandestinita-dissidenti-politica-non-sia-videogame-b474ad60-7c49-11e3-bc95-3898e25f75f1.shtml?refresh_ce-cp
Reuters (2017). Italian prosecutors
widen investigation to include MSF over migrant rescues: source, World News,
August 5
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-migrants-medecins-sans-frontier/italian-prosecutors-widen-investigation-to-include-msf-over-migrant-rescues-source-idUSKBN1AL0HZ?il=0
Wikipedia (2018). Matteo Salvini
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matteo_Salvini 
6 comments:
Peter, I was initIally elated to discover your blog because I was looking for hbd stuff that wasn't rooted in right wing thought (or any politics for that matter). I thought you were that until I kept reading. Although I've seen you assert that you're no WN, I can't really see anywhere else this road goes. I'm just somewhat saddened because as a nonwhite, I was excited to share some of your research with others but given your politics, I guess that's not a great idea. Your political sympathies would discredit your research in the eyes of my friends and colleagues.
I dislike politics as much as you do, but there are times when one is morally bound -- as an academic -- to speak out. I am speaking out for the same reason that other anthropologists have condemned China's colonization of Tibet, the seizure and colonization of traditional land belonging to Chittagong Hill Tribes, and my own country's dispossession of First Nation peoples. Fundamentally, I don't see any difference, and people who see a fundamental difference need to rethink their assumptions.
I know of very few anthropologists, or social scientists in general, who have remained apolitical. Politics is a duty for all of us, and especially for those who try to think deeply about the human condition.
I don't consider myself a nationalist, for reasons that may seem intellectually obscure (In the past, nationalists sought to eliminate regional and local subcultures. In many ways, the logic of nationalism has led to the globalism we have today). Unfortunately, the range of political options is limited, and anyone who holds out for a more respectable option will end up waiting until it's too late.
I’m not worried about population replacement per se. white people can go to the most inhospiatable continent and make it prosperous(Australia). I believe white people will be a majority of the worlds population in the future, since they (and Asians) will be best able to survive in an age of automation, while others will face civil war and famine (and a minority will intermarry).
The situation in Europe is hardly comparable to Tibet. There, you had a more advanced population displace a less ambitious one. This is hardly the case now.
Also, why should these politicians speak exactly what they think? I’m sure privately they think exactly like you do, and they’re just being smooth-tongued. Certainly, if one goes by their actions such as outsourcing immigration control to the North Africans.
A hundred years ago, China was considered backward and unambitious. The past is not always a guide to the future ... or even the present.
Most people don't have clearly defined private thoughts. Even when they do, what is the value of an opinion that is never spoken or acted upon? You sound like the first commenter: I should keep silent on certain issues in order to win friends and influence people. Presumably, once I'm liked by everybody I can then turn around and tell them what I really think.
If Western politicians are really serious about outsourcing immigration control to the North Africans, what was the point in overthrowing Gaddafi? That move blew a massive hole in the dike.
About regionalism, and and the extent to which nationalism equates to white or Euro ethnic nationalism. Nationism protect the little people against big business who are the main constituency of Western politicians. It used to be the Church who were for the common people against the nobility and crown, the Church created the machinery of nation states.
'[Andreotti] would claim that diplomacy in its modern form was an Italian staple, the Westphalian system a creature of Italian origin ushered in by the work of Cardinals Giulio Mazarino and Giulio Alberoni. It was such men, along with the future Pope Alexander VII, that “introduced Italy’s diplomatic customs regarding neutrality, precedence, privileges, immunities, the diplomatic pouch, and diplomatic couriers."
Italian politics are historically Byzantine, but the most notable thing was been how the Communist party were able to get substantial votes. Lega Nord is a strange beast and it's dubious if it can be called nationalist at all, last time I looked its stated objective wasto break away from south Italy and in effect join the lower regions of Germany.
"Lega's success is in contrast to the situation in France, the Netherlands, and Germany, where nationalist parties have done well" It seems to me that the West European nationalist parties who have done best are not nationalists for the state they are in, where they have a policy of separatism , such as Catalan, Vlams Block, SNP, and Lega Nord. business hate the separatist parties but they were rooted in the people's local particularities and could benefit from discontent. Immigration is not an issue that the activists and leadership of these parties got politically active to address. The true Nationalst parties need to build their organisation and infrastructure on the National community level, not skip up to an international ethnic ideology on a continental scale. The Tibetans and Palestinians today us and tomorrow, unless the organisation and appeal is at the national level.
The EC is already continental and dominated by globalists, and banker-run (Macon is just a debt mutualisation puppet of French bankers who have made huge toxic loans to Italy, and now need Germany). I suppose the Italians position gives them leverage to stay in the EU; they could threaten to say publicly what everyone knows: that they are never going to pay all those loans back to French banks.
I think that, as in Austrian nationalism (OK they have got somewhere), nationalist parties will have to make a very long march to real power, and there will be strong push back.
It seems Five Star's support is concentrated in the South.
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