A majority of Italians have voted for political parties that oppose further austerity measures, it emerged today as the results from Sunday’s election became clear. Mario Monti, Italy’s former technocratic Prime Minister, was the clear loser with roughly 10% of the vote, but there is no obvious winner, and financial markets fear there will now be a lengthy period of political deadlock (possibly leading to the scheduling of new elections).
Italian borrowing costs have jumped this morning, and politicians will be under pressure to form a government quickly. Pier Luigi Bersani’s centre-left coalition narrowly beat former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, but the biggest surprise of the election has come from the Five-Star Movement of popular comedian and blogger Beppe Grillo, which will now be the single largest party in the lower house.
What do YOU think? Are the Italian elections the end of austerity in Europe? Or are Italians just fed up with all politicians, and using Beppe Grillo’s Five-Star Movement as a protest vote? And is this a positive result for Europe as a whole, or does this just signal a new phase of the crisis? Let us know your thoughts and comments in the form below, and we’ll take them to policy-makers and experts for their reactions.
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Not only Italians. Polititians fed up everyone in general.
Obviously yeah they are fed up with all the incompetent and corrupt politicians. And yes, this is a eu-wide problem, because the politicians with a vision for a bette future are an endangered species on the brink of extinction.
It’s time for Europe to decide what she really needs to do, but “? ? W”!
italian elections as well as greek elections showed that the cooperation of right and left has become an necessity for further progress not only in finance but generally in politics and society. of course this includes a danger of how and in what way the two parties can cooperate or which of the two is going to implement its politic. the future will show us the results of this experiment. after all progress always comes through research and experiment.
I guess Europeans as a whole getting tired of being stripped of their rights and living standards harshly earned over a century of fights and now asked to surrender them bit by bit
EU is acting like a spoil sport 40+ year old virgin, when she’s crying of being alone, and at the same time she doesnt want to marry anyone! EU has to choose between EU austerity or not EU at all!! :)
I think they are sick and tired of the euro , the eu , and unelected eurocrats who care for nothing but their political currency and their bank accounts.
No eu at all then Maria.
Too many politicians forgot what is their ‘business’: to keep things going!
Instead they behave as if they belong to a caste, their positions (inside the ‘political establishment’) are permanent and their ‘raison d’etre’ is to enjoy the perks of power.
judging from what I had experienced from my country, Greece, a large part who voted for the Golden Dawn party, did so in protest… People who admitted doing so, gave as reasons the fact that all other parties used money to print brochures for their electoral campaigns, in a time that many Greek schools did not have money to print books for the children. The only party who did not send brochures was the Golden Dawn party.. So you see, populism works in dire times as these we are living.. on a similar note, the Italians voted with the same mind frame and we see the results.. no the danger here is not the Italians, or the euro, or the EU… The real danger are our national politicians that are happy to play with the fortunes and future of their people, plus that of Europe, in order to satisfy their need to stay in power.. for good…
This is a historical case in the Italian history. We have a wretched election system which entailed a crisis: for example, in the Camera dei Deputati(which is like Assembe Nationale or like House of Commons) the main party(which is Democratic Party) has the majority for governing; in the other House, Senato(as Snat in France) there is no Majority for anybody: this happens because the election system for the Senato(that has no main importance than Camera) is based on regional premium of majority(however, some Regions have more Senators than other ones). So there is many confusion.
All of these reasons are mixed with a wretched populism and ignorance from many Italians.
In these hours, Italians politicians are reflecting for a large coalization against Beppe Grillo Movement. I suppose that is better than to declare default
Italians are a bit crazy…they think they live hard, maybe they should try my country to see hard life…
Não é o fim de austeridade a Italia terá que encontrar o caminho para a establidade politica e esse caminho é a quase impossivel porque a esquerda não se dá com a direita e segundo os analistas politicos a Italia irá outra vez ás urnas
I think that we have problems provoked by ourself and they will be resolved by ourself…I don’t trust in any European support, it will be too easy. Our history talks very clearly: when we went down, then we identified ourselves in our Nation, when we were destroyed by the war, we did what we needed for returning up. If you think that your Nation is not the best or, easily, in right way to create major opportunities, you have to become protagonist and try to resolve your problems. In Italy we say “Rabbocchiamoci le maniche”: I think that is a phrase for all people everywhere.
It was a protest vote. And the results will be the first Grand Coalition in post 1991 history that everyone will hate. There will be no change in Europe in terms of austerity because the government in Berlin is the same after Italy’s elections as before. Intergovernmental Europe is Germanys governments telling all others what to do. If it had been any different, Hollandes election would have been more significant than M5S’ result in Italy for purposes of austerity. If you dont like it, you can try making Europe more federal. Otherwise Germany will dominate everyone the way it does now.
Like Menin Lucio above says, increasingly people are getting fed up with near treasonous politicians who always put bankers and financial markets ahead of people. Quite simply, the Euro is a banker project designed to impoverish the people, and we don’t want this any longer.
@Andrea Castellano
A default is not the worst, but the best option. People should not have to pay off politicians’ and bankers’ debt. Let the financial markets and bankers take the losses instead. And since Italy could balance its budget, it would never need to borrow money again and these financial markets would be powerless.
IF the Euro disappeared, most people would be better off. In fact, all would be better off, except politicians, bankers, corporat types and financial markets.
Say NO to bailouts for rich bankers at the expense of the poor.
All across Europe the people are rejecting the political elites. The Five-Star Movement is made up of decent men and women who demand a better Italy run by elected representatives who are genuinely accountable to the people. This is exactly what democracy is supposed to be for.
Be grateful that Five-Star is not a violent or extreme movement. Instead they are a patriotic, popular, imaginative and engaging political force. Which must be absolutely terrifying for the political elites of Europe and the EU.
The Italian people should be proud of what they have done.
It does seem to be a general concensus here that people are fed up with the political elite continuing to live a lavish lifestyle while telling the public (who pay their wages) they need to make cuts and sacrifices
The main problem is what can be done about it? Unfortunately the whole EU machine is geared to entrenching second rate politicians into positions where the people have no means of removing them and there they sit until it’s time to waltz into retirement on a huge pension
To even try and call it democracy is a gross peversion
As a point of first principle, no matter how bad this may turn out to be for Italy (and I suspect within 18 months there will be another election) or how badly for the EU, it is wonderful to see that the engineered removal of Burlesconi by the EU and replacement of a democratically elected government with an “EU authorised” unelected technocrat and technocratic government, was so robustly slapped across the face at the very first opportunity the Italian voters had.
Bravo to the Italian voters who crushed the EU technocracy installed by the EU in Italy. The result may or may not be ruinous, but democracy is not meant to guarantee economic stability or please the voters of the nation next door, or cause ripples akin to a golf clap when the “right” decision is made within Brussels – it is meant to guarantee the choice of the majority of the citizenry when it comes to choosing its own leadership – no matter how muddled the result!
Well as long as it is bad for the eu and euro it`s a great result.
http://eblanademocraticmove.blogspot.ie/2013/03/italian-election-results-2013-deja-vu.html
Here are my views on the Italian elections…. Enjoy!!
“When the vote is free, people vote for women” ( as well)! “the amazing thing is that 55% of those who will be in parliament ( Italian parliament) The tide is changing; This man started a political movement in Itali with no money. His party is now elected by the people and has big shares in the parliament; It refuses to negociate deals with both the left or right wing corrupt parties, he wants the truth out, and give people referendums, no more decision from the top. It works; ( click on ” transcript” under the screen so to see in English) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUKzRyUQ3io&feature=share
I am keeping on open mind about Grillo and his M5S but so far everything I have seen leads me to believe he is every bit as opportunistic and a demagogue as the rest of the Italian political elite. First of all, to be convicted of killing someone and have the bravado to convince yourself that your role in life is not to count your lucky stars that you are not in prison for the rest of your life and live it quietly somewhere, but to start a political movement, that takes a special kind of personality, which has nothing to do with modesty.
Second, it is easy to admire uncompromising men in politics because they risk nothing, and therefore they lose nothing. If they never win any significant votes, then they were always “courageous enough to believe in their cause”. If they win enough votes like Grillo but don’t want to govern, they never have to soil their hands with the dirty business of governing, which is politics, which is itself the art of compromise.. they lose nothing. Meanwhile, the number of the Senators the M5S won is just enough to prevent a stable coalition, which may mean that Grillo’s gain is Italy’s loss. And lastly, his entire manifesto reads like someone took a poll of the most unpopular things (corruption, the euro, etc.) but he doesn’t want to actually join any coalition to see to it that any of this gets implemented, because the sooner these unpopular issues go away, the sooner his reason for existence stops.
So we will see whether the current political climate will force him to join a coalition (without him, there is no governance in Italy) and if he does, and if he is constructive, i am prepared to change my opinion of him. But as of now, he is just another charlatan that people voted for, either because they don’t know any better, or because there is no real leadership in Italy that they mistake someone like him for a leader and follow him.
http://demata.wordpress.com
International press and media ignore (have to ignore?) the fact that Italy is a Cleptocracy until 20 years or more.
And that Italians are really exausted /angry for this.
http://demata.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/why-italians-like-movimento-cinque-stelle/
Italians are very angry with all politicians because there are many scandals and corruption in Italy.
I believe that a vote for five stars movement is a protest vote, and many of these votes coming from democratic party.
In the next elections, i think the democratic party can take many of these votes wheter to change its leader.
Andrea Castellano Almeno scirivi in italiano corretto -.-
RIMBOCCHIAMOCI LE MANICHE
correggo…grazie
Grillo … The king of fools.
He leads a party composed by people from extreme rights, extreme lefts, complottist and angry italians against the old politic system
No it will not. How could it? Austerity is a political decision taken in order to increase the top 1% income even more than it already has.
The way to resolve the problem throughout Europe is to tax those very wealthy billionaires and Corporations the way they should be, as they did in the 1960’s. And redistributing the wealth in order to bring the ability to spend to those at the bottom. The poor spend money across the board the rich have all they want and need. This move will increase growth and return us to a more civilised form of governance.
Spend on infrastructure, return manufacturing to within our own borders and limit immigration from outside Europe. It creates cheap pay at the sacrifice of the host culture. Austerity is creating destitution.
If you continue with the policies you have you will be setting up a more likely outcome of civil war across the entire 27 states. . Why would you want to do this?
so what does that make Monti ?
The last decades politicians has nothing to do with those that we used to know. The centers of power in EU have moved from the parliaments to certain Banking cycles in Brussels. The Europian leaders from servants of people have transformed to Bankers employees. The EU has a great democratic deficit. EU must find again the path with the values that’s lost in this wrong direction. That’s what Pepe and his voters are trying to achieve, there where the corrupt political system failed. It’s our only chance for awakening.
When we make these ‘elites’ pay their fair share, let’s start with Christine Lagarde, JM Barroso and all of their cronies in these international and supranational organizations who either pay no tax at all or a token amount.
I will not be lectured by lavish lifestyle living latte drinking people like Lagarde that I should pay more when she pays nothing at all.
Nobody has a clue what will happen in Italy today after hte 2018 election, with the new election law it could be chaos. Maybe Berlusconi will be back in power?…But, anyway, the EU will just push him out again like they did last time.