Italian election result ‘AWKWARD for Europe’ as populism is only beginning, warn professor
THE ITALIAN election result is “awkward for Europe” a professor has claimed after Luigi di Maio’s Five Star Movement secured 32.5 percent of the vote – becoming the first single party in Italy.
By DARREN HUNT
Express.co.uk
Mon, Mar 5, 2018
Professor Matthew Goodwin suggested the populist wave across Europe is only just beginning after Luigi di Maio’s Five Star Movement (M5S) secured the highest percent of the vote in the 2018 Italian election.
Mr Goodwin claimed the election result was “awkward” for Europe, especially as their support came from the younger generation.
Speaking on BBC’s Daily Politics, he said: “They have just had a very good election, they have upped their vote from the last election.
“Five Star are interesting because they were only founded 10 years ago by a comedian.
“It’s slightly ludicrous for people to say this is the status quo and things are okay for Europe, this is quite a shock.
“For a party to come out for nowhere and take over 30 percent of the vote and also to draw a lot of votes from young people too and this is quite an interesting point, especially from the south of Italy which has been hit by both the refugee crisis and by economic stagnation, Five Star are doing well.
“They probably won’t get into coalition, the coalition will be a right-wing coalition. My personal reading is that Luigi di Maio will not become Prime Minister, but it is awkward for Europe that a populist party has finished in first place, and has symbolically won this election, even if it might not enter into the coalition.”
Mr Goodwin added that he thought Europe was only at the beginning of seeing success with anti-establishment parties.
He said: “What we are seeing in Europe I would say is a real historic change that we have not seen before. If we were talking in the 80’s or 90’s we would not be talking about things like this.
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