A man stops to tie his shoelace by an electrical booth where an anti-referendum poster showing Italian Premier Matteo Renzi is stuck, in Rome, Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. PAimages/Gregorio Borgia. All rights reserved.
Since early December 2016, following the Italian referendum that cancelled Renzi’s government, most newspapers and news-sites have expressed fears about the populist and anti-EU comedian Beppe Grillo and his Five Star Movement winning the next elections in Italy.
Simultaneously, the same progressive media seem pretty happy about the Austrian elections that took place that same weekend. In that case the victory against a right-wing populist, with neo-Nazi tendencies, was celebrated. What is striking is that even left-leaning news sources expressed their relief at what was in fact the victory of a highly neoliberal political agenda.
