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Malay Mail
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Despite mass rallies, Italy's fractured left fails to mount real challenge to Meloni's rising far-right popularity
ROME, July 15 — Hundreds of thousands of people attended protests in Rome last month hailed as a show of strength against Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government, but Italy's divided opposition is struggling to make an impact. Almost three years after its historic election victory, Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party remains the most popular, polling at 29 percent — above the 26 percent it secured in the September 2022 vote, according to the latest YouTrend survey. The prime minister herself tops polls of party leaders with an approval rating of 45 percent, according to Ipsos. The traditional left is struggling across Europe, where populist parties — particularly the far-right — have gained ground in recent years. And in Italy, which once had Western Europe's largest Communist Party, 'there is a crisis in the left', commented Paolo Borioni, professor of political science at Rome's Sapienza University. He said left-wing parties had 'severed their historical class ties', notably with those on lower incomes. The opposition is dominated by the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), currently polling at around 22 percent, and the Five Star Movement, with around 13 percent. Marc Lazar, a professor at Sciences Po Paris and Luiss University in Rome, said both are paying the price for their record in government, where they 'disappointed, they did not address social issues'. The PD adopted several measures that liberalised the labour market and cut public spending while in power after the 2013 election. Since then, they have lost over three million votes. For its part, the Five Star triumphed in 2018 elections on an anti-establishment message, only to ally with its declared enemies while in government. People gather around the Freedom Flotilla ship "Handala" ahead of the boat's departure for Gaza at a port in Syracuse, Sicily, southern Italy, on July 13, 2025. — AFP pic Gaza, Ukraine The PD chose a new leader after the 2022 elections, Elly Schlein, who has tacked further left, championing a national minimum wage and increased spending on education and healthcare. The Five Star under former premier Giuseppe Conte is also pushing for a minimum wage and a basic income for the most vulnerable. 'Meloni, like all the right, claims to defend the people but only defends the big hedge funds, the big banks,' Riccardo Ricciardi, president of the Five Star parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies, told AFP. Both parties have also sought to mobilise public concern about rising defence budgets and Israel's offensive in Gaza. Five Star threw its weight behind a large protest in Rome last month against rearmament, an issue that Lazar noted 'poses a challenge to Giorgia Meloni' in a country with a long tradition of peace movements. But divisions on the issue within the PD have undermined the opposition's ability to attack the government. Both the PD and Five Star also backed a huge protest on Gaza, but some PD supporters accused Schlein of being slow to take up the issue. 'They lack courage,' lamented Arianna D'Archivio, a 23-year-old student organiser at the rearmament protest. A third large demonstration took place for Pride, an explicit challenge to Meloni's socially conservative agenda. Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (right) shakes hands with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) at the end of their press conference, as part of The Ukraine Recovery Conference 2025 (URC2025) at The Roma Convention Centre in Rome on July 10, 2025. — AFP pic Vote alliances Meloni shares government with the smaller far-right League party and the centre-right Forza Italia, which gives her a majority in parliament. Despite their differences, PD and Five Star have tried teaming up at the ballot box, with joint candidates winning regional elections in Emilia-Romagna and Umbria in 2024, as well as the northern city of Genoa in May. They also both supported a recent referendum on labour market reform, although it failed due to low turnout. Schlein insisted the PD was making progress. 'We will happily leave the polls to Meloni's right, but we are winning elections,' she told AFP at a recent event. The PD performed better than expected in last year's European Parliament elections, winning 24 percent of the vote, compared to 29 percent for Meloni's party — but with a historically low turnout. A man poses with a placard reading 'Meloni, your hate is a crime against humanity' during the Pride march in support of LGBTQ rights, in Rome on June 14, 2025. — AFP pic Disconnected For Dario Salvetti, an auto industry worker from Florence, the left is 'broken', 'disconnected from the masses' in a country where salaries have been stalled for decades and one in ten Italians is classified as living in poverty. For analyst Borioni, there is 'no rightward shift in the population in Italy', just more people are abandoning the left. Activists meanwhile see the problem as politics, not the left itself. Francesca Ciuffi, a 27-year-old trade unionist in the textile hub of Prato, noted their recent successes in improving conditions for workers following strikes. 'The big unions and left-wing parties have abandoned their role,' she said. — AFP
Daily Mail
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
The EU 'flooded Europe with migrants' who put 'our cities and peaceful citizens' at risk, Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orban tell anti-immigration rally
French hard-right leader Marine Le Pen and Hungarian leader Viktor Orban have accused the European Union of flooding the continent with migrants who have 'destroy[ed] our cities... [and] kill[ed] peaceful citizens.' Speaking at a rally in France on Monday, the pair launched scathing attacks on the EU and accused Brussels of denying 'states of their most sacred right, that of deciding who enters and who remains on their soil.' Aimed at marking one year since Le Pen's National Rally (RN) crushed opponents to win their best-ever vote share in European elections, the get-together in Mormant-sur-Vernisson south of Paris brought together hard-right leaders from across Europe. The mood was buoyant and confident in the wake of Donald Trump 's return to the White House earlier this year and strong election results across the continent. Orban, revelling in his self-proclaimed status as the 'black sheep of the EU' and 'Brussels' nightmare', likened European migration policy to 'an organised exchange of populations to replace the cultural base' of the continent. Boasting of having been able to 'push back migrants' in his country, even if it meant incurring sanctions from Brussels, Orban told the several thousands present: 'We will not let them destroy our cities, rape our girls and women, kill peaceful citizens.' Le Pen, in her speech, described the European Union as a 'graveyard of politically unfulfilled promises' and termed it ' woke and ultra-liberal'. 'We don't want to leave the table. We want to finish the game and win, to take power in France and in Europe and give it back to the people,' she said. Her party previously backed France's exit from the EU. But now it preaches European reform while remaining a member as Le Pen seeks to make the party electable and shake off the legacy of her late father Jean-Marie Le Pen. Other attendees included Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the League party Matteo Salvini, the leader of Spain's Vox party Santiago Abascal and former Czech premier Andrej Babis. They are all part of the Patriots for Europe faction in the European parliament, one of no less than three competing hard-right factions in the chamber. Salvini meanwhile described migration as a 'threat' to Europe. 'The threat to our children is an invasion of illegal immigrants, mainly Islamists, financed and organised in the silence of Brussels,' he affirmed from the podium, calling on European 'patriots' to 'work together' to 'take back control of the destiny and future of Europe.' In a sign of the controversy over the meeting, some 4,000 people from the left, hard left and trade unions protested in the nearby town of Montargis, according to organisers, vowing to 'build resistance' and proclaiming the hard-right leaders were 'not welcome'. 'You have here the worst of the racist and xenophobic European hard right that we know only too well,' said French hard-left MEP Manon Aubry. The meeting also comes less than two years ahead of watershed presidential elections in France where President Emmanuel Macron, who has long promoted himself as a bulwark against the hard right, cannot stand again and the RN sees its best ever chance of taking power. But it is far from certain if Le Pen will stand for a fourth time as her conviction earlier this year in a fake jobs scandal disqualifies her from standing from public office. She has appealed. But waiting in the wings is her protégé and RN party leader Jordan Bardella, 29, who would stand if Le Pen was ineligible. Bardella, who polls have shown would still be set to win the first round of presidential elections if he stands, is taking care to project his image including a long TV interview with star anchor Karine Le Marchand aimed at showing his softer side. A man coming from the Loiret region waves a French flag giving his support to French President of Rassemblement National parliamentary group Marine Le Pen, as part of a meeting of the group Patriots for Europe in the European Parliament gathering European far-right leaders in Mormant-sur-Vernisson, center France, on June 9, 2025 It is far from certain if Le Pen will stand for a fourth time as her conviction earlier this year in a fake jobs scandal disqualifies her from standing from public office Spain's far-right party Vox leader Santiago Abascal and French far-right leader and member of parliament Marine Le Pen are seen on stage during the "Fete de la Victoire" (Victory party), an event which gather supporters and nationalist politicians from across Europe to mark a year since the EU elections, in Mormant-sur-Vernisson, in the Loiret department, France, June 9, 2025 'We reject the Europe of Ursula von der Leyen,' Bardella told the rally, referring to the chief of the EU Commission. 'We reject the Europe of Macron... We represent the rebirth of a true Europe.' As well as Le Pen's legal limbo, the contours of the French 2027 presidential election remain largely unclear, with centre-right former prime minister Edouard Philippe the only major player to clearly state he will stand. Orban urged the RN to emerge triumphant from the elections. 'Without you, we will not be able to occupy Brussels... We will not be able to save Hungary from the Brussels guillotine,' said Orban.
Washington Post
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Romania's new president is sworn in as a political crisis eases, but challenges loom
BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania's newly elected president Nicusor Dan was officially sworn in on Monday, ushering in a tentative close to the worst political crisis to grip the European Union country in decades after the annulment of the previous election. But multiple challenges lie ahead. Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician and former mayor of the capital, Bucharest, decisively won the tense rerun in a runoff on May 18, beating his hard-right opponent George Simion, who later challenged the results at a top court, but was rejected last week.
Times
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Times
How Russia is using Gaelic and AI to peddle disinformation in Scotland
There is a lie being told about Anas Sarwar on the internet. The Scottish Labour leader, the story goes, is plotting for Pakistani Muslims to take power so they can 'dictate' what is taught in schools. One right-wing influencer, the former actor Laurence Fox, shared an old video of the Glasgow politician talking, rather uncontroversially, about greater south Asian participation in elected politics. Fox posted: 'Sharia law is coming.' Scottish Labour dismissed a series of accusations about Sarwar on social media. 'This is an attempt by individuals with a hard-right agenda to use dog whistles to poison our politics,' a spokesman for the party leader said. It is not only individuals, however, pushing the Sarwar video. It is also the Kremlin. And it is doing
Washington Post
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Portugal headed for another minority government after vote won by incumbent center-right party
LISBON, Portugal — Portugal was headed for yet another minority government after the incumbent center-right Democratic Alliance won a general election but failed to secure a majority in Parliament in a vote that saw surge by a hard-right populist party. Democratic Alliance leader Luis Montenegro, the incumbent prime minister, said he was willing to discuss solutions with other parties.
