Italian Politics

[Barrister]

Video going around from Meloni, I htink in her victory speech, going on about "wokeism" (didn't use that word, but clearly what she was describing) and blaming it all on unnamed "financial speculators".

I think I've heard this speech before... 

[The Larch]

Funny thing is, of course, that Italy is possible the less "woke" country you can imagine in the west.

[Jacob]

Video going around from Meloni, I htink in her victory speech, going on about "wokeism" (didn't use that word, but clearly what she was describing) and blaming it all on unnamed "financial speculators".

I think I've heard this speech before... 

As I understand it, she's also on record saying "we are all the heirs of Mussolini".

[Maladict]

26% of the vote, a massive jump from their previous 4%.

That typically doesn't end well.

[The Larch]

26% of the vote, a massive jump from their previous 4%.

That typically doesn't end well.

Yeah, that's why I said that FdI's growing pains might also be a factor. I have no idea on how well they'll be able to fill their share of ministerial positions or other high ranking officers. Besides Meloni herself I have no idea who are the party's big wigs, and given their previous fringe status it's not as if they have much experience at being at the top.

[Barrister]

Video going around from Meloni, I htink in her victory speech, going on about "wokeism" (didn't use that word, but clearly what she was describing) and blaming it all on unnamed "financial speculators".

I think I've heard this speech before... 

OK, so this speech is both better and worse than I thought.

Better because it's old, going back to 2019.

Worse, because "Financial speculators" is a term ripped right from Mussolini's mouth.

[Valmy]

They hate financial speculation? So they hate bitcoin?

[Admiral Yi]

They hate financial speculation? So they hate bitcoin?

They hate paying off their debt.

[Barrister]

They hate financial speculation? So they hate bitcoin?

They hate paying off their debt.

It's a code-word for Jews.  Rothchilds and all that.

[Razgovory]

Today we say "globalists"

[Jacob]

Cosmopolitan elites still has some currency as well, it seems.

[The Larch]

Wasn't "rootless cosmopolitan" the Soviet antisemitic pejorative of choice back in the day? I believe the current MAGA crowd prefer "globalist elite" or something to that effect.

[Admiral Yi]

It's a code-word for Jews.  Rothchilds and all that.

No shit Sherlock.

Italy is a highly indebted country dependent on the kindness of the ECB.  To cast their self-induced debt service issues as the fault of shiftless Jewish money lenders is not that much of a stretch.

[The Larch]

It seems that a possible new casualty of the elections results will be Salvini himself, as Lega's big wigs blame him squarely for the party's dramatic drop in voting. Apparently he is also being spurned in coalition talks, as he is dead set in recovering the Interior ministry from which he created alll kind of trouble back in the day, but now FdI think it's too important a ministry for a party with their vote share.

If he's finally dropped, this could also mean an end to the Lega's attempt to go national, as Salvini was its strongest proponent, but has not been backed by results in these elections, in which they've retreated to their northern strongholds, in some of which they've also lost ground to FdI.

[The Larch]

So, today was the first day of the legislature in Italy, and shenanigans already took place in the Senate, as Forza Italia abstained from voting the proposed Senate president candidate from FdI (Inazio Larussa, former minister in the Berlusconi governments of the early 00s and one of FdI's founders). When Larussa went to speak with Berlusconi (who is a senator) about why he didn't vote in the first round they apparently had a brief badmouthing. After several innefectual voting rounds, Larussa ended out being selected without FI's votes, but with some opposition votes in his favour to break out the stalemate.

There's also trouble with the forming of the government, as Berlusconi and Meloni can't seem to agree about which and how many FI ministers there should be.

So, all in all, the government coalition hasn't really started out well.