Italy's Populist Parties Win Approval to Form Government
Source: New York Times
By Jason Horowitz
May 31, 2018
After a seesaw week that spooked financial markets, Italy’s president on Thursday gave a green light to a government of populist parties that would put Europe’s fourth largest economy into the hands of leaders deeply antagonistic to the European Union, its currency and illegal migrants.
Only days ago, President Sergio Mattarella of Italy rejected a populist government over concerns about a key minister who had suggested he wants to withdraw Italy from the group of countries that use the euro, Europe’s single currency. The chaotic consequences of such a move — even if remote — alarmed many investors and resurrected fears about a possible fracturing of the European Union.
On Thursday evening, the party leaders presented the president with a reshuffled cabinet that would make it difficult for Mr. Mattarella to reject them a second time. The new government still needs to win a confidence vote in Parliament, but at this stage that was a formality.
But the newly constituted government, of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the anti-immigrant League, still left open the question of whether the reaction of financial markets to Italy’s political chaos this week had chastened them, or whether it simply had led them to disguise their hostility as the price of admission into power.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/world/europe/italy-government-populists.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
I didn't think it did.
I'm sure the "populists" in Italy feel a kinship with our Trumpistas.
