M5S Party movement's founder Beppe Grillo in Naples, Italy on February 12, 2018 during election tour for the March 04, 2018. NurPhoto/Press Association. All rights reserved. Italy’s political campaign for the national election due next weekend, has probably been the worst in the country’s history. Italians have been bombarded by promises which are simply not technically feasible, while reciprocal offences amongst political parties fighting for their survival have been daily exchanged.
Very few or no ideas have been heard on how to rescue a country which has been struggling with an apparently unstoppable decline for twenty-five years. And yet, although the elections head towards an outcome with no clear winner, it is getting close to the moment when Italians will have to make a choice amongst three very different routes which only partially coincide with the alternatives offered by current political offerings. It is a choice which will not only decide the future of the country, but also the direction and the intensity of much needed reforms in the European Union itself.
First option
The first option that Italians have got is simply to believe that they can draw their bridge up and go back to some mythological past which preceded the globalization game that the country has lost out in. It is the choice that America and the UK narrowly made with the election of Trump and the referendum on the BREXIT in 2016. This is what the “League” and “Brothers of Italy” are proposing with their “Italians first” call.
