Italy

22 April 2017 The first round of the elections in France is being held against the backdrop of an attempt by the state and the...

CIA Covert Aid to Italy Averaged $5 Million Annually from Late 1940s to Early 1960s, Study Finds Previously Unpublished Draft Defense Department History Explores U.S....

by Giullietto Chieza According to Tomas Prouza - state secretary for EU Affairs in Prague - “There is a real danger that British politics, with...

Posted January 17, 2017 National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 577 Edited by Carlos Osorio For further information contact Carlos Osorio: cosorio@gwu.edu   A tribunal in Rome, Italy, today...

If somebody asked me, in 2016, why I still consider myself to be on the Left, then I would undoubtedly start from my thoughts about the historical shift that occurred with the atomic bombings of two Japanese cities on 6th and 9th August 1945. Yet I would be the first to admit that the question of these weapons of mass destruction (and other such weapons) transcends the traditional spectrum of political ideologies, including those of the Left and of the Right.

Trading in the troubled bank’s shares was repeatedly halted on the Italian stock exchange on Friday. The MPS share price closed 10% lower as the bank’s board held a meeting that had already been scheduled before the reports that the ECB had rejected its calls for an extension to the deadline to bolster its financial position.

The reform, which intended to eliminate the model known as ‘perfect bicameralism’ and reduce the amount of members of the Senate, among other things, didn’t reach the majority of votes, and therefore Renzi, at midnight in Italy, announced on TV that he will officially submit his resignation to the President of the Republic. ‘The Italian people have spoken unequivocally (…) I lost and I will leave my seat. My experience in government has come to an end’, the Prime Minister said in press round filled with journalists. Renzi expressed the need to make reforms in Italy, and called to keep on fighting.

December 4th was a great day in Italy. We hoped such an outcome, but did not expect it. When we saw so much turnout by voters we were not sure how to interpret it, because the media and the government had claimed that more voters would result in a higher percentage of “yes” to the constitutional reform. Well, it was the other way round. An unprecedented (for a referendum) participation rate brought to a clear rejection of the reform proposal, and of the government.

BEFORE American voters—especially white, male, rural and older ones—carried Donald Trump to victory in America’s presidential election, aggrieved British voters with a similar profile voted to leave the European Union. Equally surly voters in France have been flocking to Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front for months; she is tipped to make the run-off in next year’s presidential election. Alternative for Germany, an anti-immigrant party, is picking up support ahead of a federal election in Germany, also in 2017.

This election is great news. A lesson in democracy. In Trump's program, there are such theses as putting an end to wars and the export of democracy around the whole world, revising NATO and the UN’s roles, and pursuing friendly relations with Russia. Great attention is also paid to what is happening in the United States: the war against illegal immigration and the introduction of proportional taxation (a flat tax).