Europe’s new democracy

By 25 May the world was learning of the Italian populist parties’ plans to form a coalition government. This would ditch the ideological divide of left vs right while unifying the country’s north and south and its populists and the nationalists against a long history of technocratic governments and European Central Bank demands.

Over the next 48 hours, a combination of foreign politicians, foreign capital and foreign media descended upon Italy to demand the Italian people’s choices in voting for the right-wing League and the left-wing Five Star parties were dismissed. And indeed they were dismissed. The Financial Times called the coalition ‘the modern barbarians’, while the German press called the Italian people ‘less grateful than beggars’. I was reminded of the moment when Hillary Clinton first called Trump supporters ‘deplorables’. We see the same thing happening all over the world.

Against this backdrop, President Sergio Mattarella batted away the coalition government’s plan to appoint an outspoken Euro-sceptic, Paolo Savona, as finance minister — it was too much for the European Central Bank to swallow.