Blogger Matt Eckel writes about a disturbing shift in Italian politics:
Anyone taking a passing glance at European political trends in the past few months might be prompted to ask, along with Alex Harrowell, ‘what’s going on in Italy?’ Harrowell amplifies the considerable angst expressed by the Guardian’s Martin Jacques over some of the cultural touchstones that accompanied recent Italian elections. Rome, which has not had a conservative mayor since Italian fascism collapsed in 1943, has elected Gianni Alemanno, a Berlusconi ally who ran on a vociferously anti-immigrant platform, to lead the city’s government. At Alemanno’s victory rally, his supporters gave the Roman salute while evoking Mussolini, shouting, “Duce! Duce! Duce!”
The shift to the nationalist – detractors would say xenophobic – right played out nationally as well, putting Berlusconi in power at the head of a coalition that includes the regionalist and virulently anti-immigrant, as well as the National Alliance, which descends directly from the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement.
Read the full article here.