Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label Five Star Movement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Five Star Movement. Show all posts

Saturday, March 30, 2019

Thousands march in Italy against anti-gay, anti-abortion group


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Feminists, LGTB rights campaigners and other activists marched to protest what they say are the US movement's ultra-conservative views
Feminists, LGTB rights campaigners and other activists marched to protest what they say are the US movement's ultra-conservative views AFP
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Verona (Italy) 
by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, France24
Tens of thousands of people marched in the northern Italian city of Verona Saturday to protest a meeting of the anti-gay, anti-abortion US-based World Congress of Families.
But while Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini addressed the Congress Saturday, coalition partners the Five Star Movement (M5S) denounced the organisation's values.
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A colourful procession of feminists and LGBT activists from several European countries marched through the city centre to state their opposition to the ultra-conservative policies of the movement.
Activists came from as far afield as Britain, Croatia, Germany, Poland and Switzerland to protest.
Many sang "Bella Ciao", an anthem of the Italian resistance during WWII, and banners carried slogans including "Our bodies and our desires, it's we who decide".
Local newspapers estimated the turn-out to be between 20,000 and 30,000 people. Organisers put the figure nearer 100,000.
"Here in Verona, the international lobbies like the World Congress of Families and neoliberal groups want to impose the model by which every man must have a woman," Argentine activist Marta Dillon told us at France24. 
"That's why they are fighting for a closed family that is a machine for violence," she added.
Dillon is founder of the feminist "Non una di Meno" (Not one less) movement, which organised a flash mob earlier Saturday near Gran Gardia Palace where the Congress was taking place under tight security.
- Rubber foetuses -
Saturday was the second day of the Congress's three-day meeting. Inside the conference, delegates were handed rubber models intended to resemble a foetus at 10 weeks, carrying the message "Abortion stops a beating heart".
That initiative was denounced as "monstruous" by Laura Boldrini, a former president of Italy's Chamber of Deputies.
The day's proceedings also featured the launch of a committee calling for a referendum on abolishing Italy's abortion laws. Abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978.
Salvini, was the main speaker at Saturday's gathering.
"We are not here to suppress anybody's rights," Salvini, of the far-right League party, told the meeting.
But Salvini's coalition partner Luigi Di Maio, leader of the anti-Establishment Five Star Movement spoke out against the views held by the World Congress of Families.
"The vision defended by this Congress in Verona is a vision of the world that belongs for the most part to the Middle Ages, which considers women as submissive," he said.
Founded in 1997 by the American Brian Brown, the World Congress of Families has held an annual meeting since 2012.
Its credo, as stated on its website, is to "affirm, celebrate, and defend the natural family as the only fundamental and sustainable unit of society".
Previous meetings include one in Hungary, which enjoyed the patronage of the country's far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
As well as Salvini, other speakers at this year's event include the President of Moldova Igor Dodon -- a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Hungary's ultra-conservative Families Minister Katalin Novak and a senior figure in the Russian Orthodox Church, Dmitri Smirnov, are also listed as speakers.
And two other Italian ministers were due to address the Congress: Lorenzo Fontana, Minister for Families and the Handicapped and Education Minister Marco Busetti.

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Tuesday, June 19, 2018

BREAKING: Italy's Salvini sparks outcry over Roma census plans


by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, France24, Rome


    © AFP | Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is under fire over plans for a census of the country's Roma community

    ROME - 
    Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Tuesday defended his plans to count the Roma community living in the country and deport those without legal status, despite outrage at home and abroad.
    "I'm not giving up and I'm pushing ahead! The Italians and their safety first," Salvini tweeted, after opposition MPs slammed the idea of a census as "racist" and "fascist."
    Salvini -- already under fire when he refused last week to let a rescue ship carrying 630 migrants land in Italy -- had floated the plan on national television on Monday.
    A census would allow the authorities to "see who, how (they live) and how many there are," he argued.
    It would then allow the authorities to study the possibility of expelling Roma of foreign nationality without the proper documentation, he said.
    But confronted with widespread anger on Tuesday, the anti-immigrant Salvini sought to clarify his plans.
    "It is not our intention to record or take anyone's fingerprints," he said, according to a statement from his far-right League party.
    "Our goal is a recognition of the situation of Roma camps. We intend to protect thousands of children who are not allowed to attend school regularly."
    - 'Unconstitutional' -
    But condemnation of his proposals was rapid and widespread, with not only the opposition parties but also members of the newly-established ruling coalition adding their voices.
    The European Union also weighed in to the controversy.
    EU Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein told journalists that "as a general rule, we cannot deport a European citizen based on ethnic criteria".
    Deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio -- leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement that makes up the coalition alongside Salvini's League -- said any census based on ethnicity would be "unconstitutional".
    It is the first time that Di Maio has spoken out against his coalition partner and fellow deputy prime minister Salvini since the populist new government was sworn in on June 1.
    So far, the coalition has attempted to put on a show of unity despite vast political differences. And Di Maio has allowed Salvini to impose his authority and push his hardline immigration and nationalist stance.
    - 'Memories from 80 years ago' -
    Nevertheless, Italian media reported that Salvini's plans also drew the ire of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte -- even if he made no official statement on the matter.
    Italy's Jewish community said the idea of a census drew parallels with measures targeting Jews under fascist war-time leader Benito Mussolini.
    The "announcement is worrying and evokes memories from just 80 years ago which are sadly increasingly forgotten," said community leader, Noemi Di Segni.
    Salvini already caused a diplomatic crisis with Italy's EU partners earlier this month when he barred a charity-operated rescue ship with 630 mostly African migrants from docking.
    He has also repeatedly taken aim at the Roma community, making promises to bulldoze Roma camps during his election campaign.
    His calls for a census also drew sharp criticism from Italian opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
    "Yesterday refugees, today the Roma, tomorrow guns for everyone. It must be tiring being nasty," former premier Paolo Gentiloni tweeted on Monday.
    The PD's current leader Matteo Orfini tweeted: "If we really want to carry out the census, I would start with the census of racists and fascists. To better avoid them."
    According to a report by Association "21 Luglio," which works with the Roma community, there are between 120,000-180,000 Roma living across Italy.
    Salvini's popularity is on the rise, nevertheless.
    One opinion poll published by La7 TV channel on Monday put the League as Italy's leading political force for the first time ever, with 29.2 percent support, compared with its 17 percent share of the vote in the March election.
    The poll put Five Star in second place with 29 percent.

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    Thursday, May 31, 2018

    Analysis: Italy needs to be handled with care

    Panic, but not yet
    by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, News Analysts, The Economist Intelligence Unit, Rome

    It can find a way out of its immediate crisis. But Italy’s long-term outlook is more worrying

    DURING the worst days of the euro-zone debt crisis, the fear was that bond-market turmoil in places such as Greece and Spain would spread to Italy. The biggest debtor in Europe would be too big to bail out, so Grexit might lead to Italexit and the break-up of the euro. Now the attention is focused directly on Italy itself.
    In March half of Italian voters plumped for two populist parties that until recently favoured leaving the euro: the maverick Five Star Movement, which triumphed in the poorer south; and the xenophobic Northern League, which scored well in the richer north. Neither had fought the election campaign on a promise to leave the euro (the opposite, in fact). And as the two tried to form an all-populist cabinet, investors hoped that the sobering prospect of power, together with EU deficit rules and the behind-the-scenes influence of the Italian president, would allow Italy to keep muddling along.

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    Such hopes took a nasty jolt on May 27th. The populists named as finance minister Paolo Savona, an economist who does indeed think that Italy should quit the euro. President Sergio Mattarella vetoed Mr Savona (see article). The populists threatened for a moment to impeach him and even hinted at a march on Rome—an allusion to Benito Mussolini’s blackshirts in 1922. Amid talk of a political, constitutional and economic crisis, bond yields spiked and global stockmarkets shuddered (see article).
    In the short term such fears are overblown. Italy is less vulnerable to panicky investors than many realise. Its economy, let alone its democracy, is nowhere near collapse. But deep-rooted weaknesses are worsening and becoming harder to fix. To avoid an eventual explosion, Italy needs careful handling and a change in mindset—of its and Europe’s politicians alike. The worry is that neither seems likely.
    Panic, but not yet
    Whatever the outcome of closed-door scheming in Rome this week, Italy is likely to get its first all-populist government—if not now, then soon, after another election. That could lead to spendthrift policies. The populists’ plans include a flat tax that would lower revenues and a universal basic income that would raise expenditure; both parties want to wind back previous pension reforms. This could cost as much as 6% of GDP annually—largesse that Italy cannot afford with its public debt at 132% of GDP, the highest in the world after Japan and Greece.
    Yet Italy is not Greece. In 2017 the government ran a budget surplus before interest payments of 1.7% of GDP. The average maturity of its debt is about seven years. Given that much of its borrowing is from its own residents, and that the current account is in surplus, Italy is not particularly vulnerable to a run on its bonds by foreign investors. The ECB is still buying its bonds under the quantitative-easing programme, albeit at a reduced rate. Short of a large and prolonged risk premium on its bonds, Italy’s debts are serviceable.
    Italy’s real problem is the debilitating combination of chronically low growth and high public debt. Low growth means living standards are stagnant and Italy cannot work off its debt easily; high debt means it cannot use fiscal stimulus to boost the economy, especially if there is another downturn. Even with the global upswing of recent years, Italy remains one of Europe’s worst-performing economies.
    Though populists rail against austerity, years of budgetary restraint give them a bit of room to introduce their policies. But doing so at any scale requires them to shift the burden of taxes and expenditure, not add to it. Italy already spends more on cash transfers, 20% of GDP, than any other rich country. If it wants to introduce a universal basic income, it needs to cut pensions, not increase them. Its tax wedge, the gap between what employers pay and what employees take home, is one of the highest in the OECD. This contributes to joblessness. Just 69% of Italian 25- to 54-year-olds are in work, compared with 74% in Spain and 81% in France. Cutting taxes on income and labour, though, will require Italy to raise them elsewhere, ideally on property and consumption.
    Quitaly
    A bigger problem is that the populists have little idea how to deal with the myriad causes of Italy’s stagnant productivity: a rigid, dual labour market; uncompetitive product markets; the proliferation of family-owned firms that do not grow; a banking system hobbled by bad loans; an underperforming education system; and, more recently, a brain-drain. London is now a sizeable Italian city.
    Fixing all this requires years of difficult structural reforms, now all the more difficult after successive governments have wasted the time and opportunity provided by the global recovery and the ECB’s ultra-low interest rates.
    The same is true of the euro zone as a whole. Its “banking union” is incomplete; its capital markets are underdeveloped. And all ideas for a substantial budget to help countries in the straitjacket of the euro adjust to shocks have been rejected. Creditor countries, led by Germany, have said that they will not accept greater risk-sharing without greater risk-reduction. Italian populists’ call to do away with budgetary restraint only deepens Germany’s belief that Italy cannot be trusted.
    A founder of the EU, Italy was long one of the most Europhile members; it is now among the most Eurosceptic. But the populists know that most Italians, even those who voted for them, do not want to see their savings slashed and their jobs destroyed by leaving the single currency. That is why they have toned down their anti-euro rhetoric. But they do not understand that living in a single currency requires a flexible economy. Similarly, Germany has yet to accept that, if it is to thrive, the euro zone must have more risk-sharing.
    Inadequate reform and incompatible visions of the euro’s future are a poisonous and unsustainable combination. If the turmoil in Italy and the markets’ fright have served as a reminder of such dangers, and spur reform both in Rome and Brussels, then some good may come of the mess. The risk is that it will make any reform harder, if not impossible.
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