Italy: Salvini Sets Sights on Taking over EU after his Alliance Wins Big in Italian Province

TNO STAFF — MARCH 25, 2019:

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has announced his intention to launch a major attempt to wrest control of the European Parliament away from the pro-Third World invasion bloc at that institution’s May elections—after his populist collation seized yet another Italian province from the internationalists.

Celebrating the victory on Twitter, Salvini said that the result in the southern province of Basilicata, Salvini boasted that his Lega party had tripled its vote in the election which had seen the province wing away from the internationalists for the first time since 1945.

“So it is goodbye to the internationalists, now we change Europe,” Salvini said.

The regional election in Basilicata, traditionally known as the “Red Region of the South” because of the previously strong Communist/Internationalist party vote, saw the election alliance between the Lega, the Sons of Italy (which runs in a direct line to the now-disbanded MSI party, which in turn was the direct successor to Mussolini), and the Forza Italia party of former premier Silvio Berlusconi, draw 42 percent of the vote. The Internationalist Democratic Party drew 16.4 percent, while the Five Star Movement, Salvini’s eclectic coalition partner in the central government, polled 20.3 percent, a drop of more than half from the previous election.

The election means that since 2017, seven provinces in Italy have swung from the internationalists to center right control, including Sicily, Molise, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige , Abruzzo and Sardinia.

The real meaning of the Basilicata election is however that Salvini’s alliance is set to be the biggest winners in the upcoming European Parliament elections, scheduled for May this year. Italy currently has 72 seats in the parliament, the third largest bloc after France (72) and Germany (99).*

Salvini is forging an electoral alliance across Europe. Partners include the PIS party in Poland—set to win a majority of the 50 seats that nation holds in the EU parliament; the Fidesz party of Viktor Orban in Hungary, set to take a majority of the 22 seats that state holds; the National Rally party (formerly the Front National) in France, which currently holds 15 of France’s 72 seats, but is likely to increase its holding; the AfD in Germany, which currently holds 1 EU seat but is likely to dramatically increase its member share.

In addition, Salvini is likely to cobble together EU parliament votes from the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) which currently holds 4 seats, and the new Dutch Forum for Democracy (FvD) which holds no seats (not having contested the EU elections before) but which, based on the recent Dutch local elections, is set to take the majority of that county’s seats in the EU parliament.

Firm Salvini alliance partner the Freedon Party of Austria (FPÖ) currently has 4 seats in EU parliament, and is likely to increase its share, while the Belgian Vlaams Belang has 1 seat, with New Flemish Alliance, a “softer” party, another 4 seats.

In Denmark, Salvini can likely count on votes from the Danish People’s Party, which has 3 seats in the EU parliament, while the Finns party (formerly known in English as the True Finns) in Finland have 2 seats, and are likely to increase their share of the vote as well. Sweden’s Swedish Democrats are also likely to be sympathetic to a populist bloc in the EU parliament.

When assorted smaller parties—such as Germany’s National Democratic Party (1 seat) and Greece’s Golden Dawn (2 seats), and nationalists/populists from Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czechia, Estonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia are added in, a potentially significant voting bloc is well within sight.

Only the internationalist parties of France and Germany have, together with the internationalists from Spain, Portugal, and the internationalists from other states, have any real chance of stopping this new populist bloc from emerging and taking over the EU.

The upcoming elections are therefore going to be one of the most significant European Parliament elections ever held, and if Salvini’s plan comes to fruition, could see the pro-Third World invasion policies which the internationalists have pursued for so long, turned on their head.

* European Parliament elections are scheduled for 23-26 May. The UK is not scheduled to take part as it is on course to leave the EU on 29 March 2019. The UK also had 72 seats in the parliament, but after Brexit they will obviously have none. Half of the UK seats will be held in reserve, and the other half will be distributed out to other member states.