Demagogues Win as Europe’s Populist Tide Sweeps Italy
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The Italian elections on Sunday were the latest powerful wave in a tidal turn of anti-immigrant, anti-European Union and antidemocratic fervor that has ravaged European politics. The vote was a stinging rejection of traditional parties, and of national leadership that has been frustrated by a flood of migrants from Africa and the Middle East and stymied by years of stagnation.
While the populist parties that were the two biggest vote-getters were different in many ways, both want to abandon the euro and support for migrants, and shared conspiracy theories about bankers, vaccines and the 9/11 attacks.
The lack of an outright winner or obvious coalition promises a long and wobbly slog before a government, most likely unstable, takes shape.
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