Italy - Le Pen And Wilders Congratulate Salvini As Nationalists Take 22%

Whereas everyone in Europe feared last year’s elections in Holland (because of the nationalist party of Geert Wilders) and France (because of the nationalist party of Marine Le Pen) it would now appear that Italy, the EU’s 4th largest economy (3rd without the UK) will become the nightmare the EU Commission was afraid of would inevitably come as the ‘old continent’ takes a swing to the right.

We are still counting in Italy but no one doubts that the final result will be very far off what we have now.

The biggest single party as predicted it the euro-skeptical 5-star movement but given that 3 other parties (headed by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi) formed a coalition which is polling some 37%, everyone is looking at them to form a new government. However, as no one has a working majority, it will take weeks, even months to unscramble this Gordian knot.

There is, however, one very important detail. The far right, Mr Matteo Salvini’s Lega Nord and the smaller Brothers of Italy, which was in a coalition with Mr Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, have gathered far more votes than anyone expected.

So far the combined total of Lega Nord and Brothers of Italy stands at a whopping 22%, meaning a nightmare scenario for Europe because Mr Berlusconi had a gentleman’s agreement with Mr Salvini that whoever came out on top, could pick the next prime minister.

Marine Le Pen, of France’s Front National, was quick to congratulate Mr Matteo Salvini.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr">La progression spectaculaire et l&#39;arrivée en tête de la coalition de La Ligue emmenée par notre allié et ami <a href="https://twitter.com/matteosalvinimi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@matteosalvinimi</a> est une nouvelle étape du réveil des peuples !<br>Chaleureuses félicitations ! 👏🏻 MLP<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Elezioni2018?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Elezioni2018</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Italie?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Italie</a>🇮🇹</p>&mdash; Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLP_officiel/status/970543323919372288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Also Geert Wilders, of the Dutch PVV sent a similar message to him.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="ro" dir="ltr">Congratulations / congratulazioni <a href="https://twitter.com/matteosalvinimi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@matteosalvinimi</a> !!! <a href="https://t.co/t8QolYWs0k">https://t.co/t8QolYWs0k</a></p>&mdash; Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) <a href="https://twitter.com/geertwilderspvv/status/970527809184641024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2018</a></blockquote>

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The government centre-left lost ground, with Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) of Prime Minister Gentolini securing only 18.9% of the vote.

<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Italy&#39;s far-right leader Matteo Salvini held a rally in Milan, speaking to supporters for the last time ahead of the general election <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/elezioni2018?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#elezioni2018</a> <a href="https://t.co/5w0WlibHa6">pic.twitter.com/5w0WlibHa6</a></p>&mdash; AFP news agency (@AFP) <a href="https://twitter.com/AFP/status/969930816494153728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2018</a></blockquote>

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La Repubblica newspaper, the country’s biggest, said the failure of the left to win a fifth of the votes is a strong psychological blow.

Source:

http://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2018/03/05/news/elezioni_italia_esulta_destra_europea_salvini_le_pen-190486076/?ref=RHPPLF-BH-I0-C4-P1-S1.4-F4