Not Good: Italy's Democratic party scores stunning win at European elections

www.theguardian... .com/world/2014/may/26/italy-democratic-party-win-european-elections-matteo-renzi-five-star-movement

The European elections have handed Italy's prime minister, Matteo Renzi, a resounding victory as the centre-left leader's Democratic party (PD) won more than 40% of the vote and trounced the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S). In an astonishingly strong showing that not even the most optimistic of PD figures had expected, Renzi's pro-European party – which last year performed disappointingly at the general election under a previous leader – was on 40.8% on Monday morning with most votes counted.

For those that don't know, since the last elections within the country, Italy has been sitting in the midst of a hung parliament. Compound the problem with Silvio Berlusconi applying fascist like tactics on media (he owns 100% control of tv and radio there) plus his tax evasion and child molestation scandal, this is like letting the drunk uncle drive 100 miles home from a party.

Italy is in a bad place right now. They have a age gap (not a lot of offspring were produced between 1970-1990) and those that are young and of working age 18-30 are unemployed. Berlusconi sold out their factories, and made a devil's deal over farming, which now Germany gets a piece of their pie. Racism and the rising of neo-fascism, neo-nazism is GREAT, so much so people like Cecile are being called porch monkeys before Parliament and she is an elected African descent official! Granted the world’s population is growing at the same time technology is reducing the number of workers needed. People move to find jobs and the existing residents don’t appreciate the new competition, especially in Italy. Add the globalization of greed into the mix, and let’s not be surprised that parties who turn inward and reject the new ‘outsiders’ did well; Italy itself has a really big problem with cheap African labor that seems carelessly smuggled across the border and borders on slave labor. Having said that, the EU institutions have done themselves no favors by avoiding referendums on the Lisbon Treaty (except Ireland who had to vote twice before ‘getting it right’). Italy running the show is akin to a nail in the coffin.

This, in my opinion, is the beginning of the end for the EU and the fragile peace of Europe.

a reply to: ArchPlayer

This, in my opinion, is the beginning of the end for the EU and the fragile peace of Europe.

I would think that it would be the opposite, considering what ideals the party represents as supporting.

The end of the EU is coming and i for one welcome that.

What is happening everywhere in Europe is "divide et impera" they need to destroy the old structure before new world order can take a place..
Ironic but more i see this madness in Europe more i believe in this conspiracy.

All in all its looking pretty bad, Europe is seeing a steady rise in far-right political parties gaining popularity. This is bad. If people think the rise of fascism in Europe is a good thing, you are a moron.

I wonder if "Europe" is really that organized? The more I follow the situation the more it seems that the EURO and EU were just a response to competitive pressure, put together in a way that would generate the least political resistance possible. It just doesn't seem like the rollout of a grand plan at all. Just run of the mill competitive pressure doing its thing.

a reply to: dollukka

I'm a Italian immigrant through marriage; I have seen so much divide and conquer here in the 10 years I've become a citizen it is absolutely disturbing. When I first arrived before marriage, it was chill, laid back. The Lire was currency then and outside of the difficulty figuring out a million lire was a drop in a bucket, the lire dollar was strong and had a great circulation rate and power and actual coins were made of gold and silver. Since the Euro has come in, it literally has been like a plague of sorts. A lot of "old wealth" dissappeared and/or devalued in the conversion. A lot of towns went belly up overnight, and border on abandoned. The land that was in families for generations were swallowed up in insane "estate" and "death" taxes that increased in some cases threefold.

When the borders opened without passport checks, it seemed like the English policies on loose immigration just ran amok in Italy, considering most of the African immigrants come through there and even amongst the legal immigrants dissident grew as politicians like Berlusconi instituted a policy to turn a blind eye on border patrol....he even ELIMINATED patrols at some well known sea points known for immigrants sneaking in. Granted, not a lot of immigrants stay in Italy; they tend to go through France and filter throughout Western Europe just because of the Italian resistance to speak dual languages. Italians have always been anti-bilingualism in the major scheme of things, a point that also doesn't help them in this NWO. My spouse speaks every language that borders the country, but only because of the family business. It was a point of antagonism during the school years by teachers who felt it was unpatriotic.

Illegal Immigration broke a lot more than the powers that be could ever imagine.

My Italian friend says it is just depressing whenever she goes back to Rome these days, the city has become... a very unpleasant place to be. Same with many of the big cities.

And look at the unemployment level in Spain.

There's a lot of disaffected young people in Europe with no jobs, no hope, and no future. It's a powder keg that will blow somehow.

a reply to: Painterz

Your friend Painterz is spot-on. This isn't the Rome that Diana Ross shot Mahogany in back in the 1970s. When I was in Rome visiting friends on my way to Emile-Romagna last year I hardly recognized it. The crime is ridiculous (keep in mind petty crime is everywhere but the strong arm violent kind has increased dramatically). The rent has went up almost akin to NYC rent prices without rent control. The neo-nazi movement there is scary...real scary. The government passed laws making it a maximum prison sentence for hate crimes but has not enforced it. The African prison workers are attacked brutally there, and there was a huge incident there back in 2010 where foriegn born Italians were beat almost to death just working legitimately.

Bologna (where my extended family lives) is really depressing; a lot of people that were prosperous before I was married were literally living under bridges. No one that me or my spouse knew were working; able bodied people in the 30s. There was no work. The conversation always wound up with stories of our friends going to jail for trying to dumpster dive for some of the millions of pounds of cheese that was thrown out of the factories after the Earthquake 2 years ago. The oldest university in existence is in Bologna, and they are facing a shut down because Berlusconi's party defunded all institutions of higher learning last year. Keep in mind the educational system is not for profit like in the States, and at max 4 years will be 6,000 euro (there is no concept of financial aid). If you can't pay it, you can qualify to continue studies on scholarship, or go to trade school. Most students are not even doing that, they can't afford the commute.

During my stay there were a lot of people protesting. Some knew what they were protesting, some were just "going with the in-crowd". Confusion is all over the place, and you are right, there is no jobs and no hope. Most of my buds over there have taken to drinking to cope. Some have lost family from suicide. The employment situation isn't as cut and dry as we are lead to believe in the media. The mafia has gotten into racketeering jobs. If you don't pay them, and give them a cut of your salary they muscle the local employers not to hire. There were several protests going on about that, and favorite places to patronize sadly were boarded up by my return.

Blow is not the right word. This is a fission explosion.