Italy - Government Blames ‘Foreign Meddling’ For Right-Wing Rise

Italian elections are only 10 days away or so. On 4 March the third largest economy of the Eurozone goes to the polls with the topics of the election so far being immigration and the state of the economy.

The leftwing coalition government has been unable to put the economy back on track and the shooting of 6 African immigrants by a far-right extremist a few weeks ago put the immigration issue back at number one on the agenda, even though the government had tried to not make this election about that.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Governing with Italian right-wing hardliners is looking like an increasingly tricky prospect for Silvio Berlusconi <a href="https://t.co/gBe5IkOBET">https://t.co/gBe5IkOBET</a> <a href="https://t.co/ofXh88E81c">pic.twitter.com/ofXh88E81c</a></p>&mdash; Bloomberg (@business) <a href="https://twitter.com/business/status/965658724437319682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Current Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni is clearly out of a job in two weeks, pretty much everyone agrees on that, but the old fox had the last ace in his sleeve apparently.

Related coverage: <a href="http://thegoldwater.com/news/18654-Video-Antifa-Clashes-With-Police-Ahead-Of-Italian-Elections"> Video - Antifa clashes with police ahead of Italian Elections </a>.

The Italian government published its annual security report, warning that opinion shaping campaigns are a major threat to the country's democracy with less than two weeks until the general elections.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">13. And look, accordingly to this poll, surprise surprise, Berlusconi Coalition looks very close to a majority, both at low Chamber and Senate. This is the simulation at “Camera”. His coalition stands at 312 seats (without abroad ones). Majority is “only” 316 <a href="https://t.co/KVjfBJ9g24">pic.twitter.com/KVjfBJ9g24</a></p>&mdash; Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) <a href="https://twitter.com/antoguerrera/status/965720948694507520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2018</a></blockquote>

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In other words, knowing that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia is bound to win the election together with the far-right nationalists of Fuorza Nova and Lega Nord, the leftist government blamed ‘Russian interference’ for the rise of the right-wing parties, knowing that Mr. Berlusconi and Russian President Putin get along really well.

In essence, the report warned that:

- Stolen information acquired through cyber attacks could be distributed online to sway opinion.

- Malicious actors could "exploit" liberal democracies through the "use of sophisticated techniques and considerable financial resources."

- The campaigns seek to introduce "destabilizing elements" into society by exacerbating political, economic and social divisions online.

Source:

http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/berlusconi-is-suddenly-italy-s-best-hope