Current Events > haHA, liberals, Italian populist right wingers smashed you!

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.ft.com/content/011d9530-2148-11e8-a895-1ba1f72c2c11

Five Star looks left for path to power in Italy
Anti-establishment group weighs link with defeated Democratic party after election win

Italys Five Star Movement is weighing an alliance with parties of the left and centre-left and not the Eurosceptic League as its preferred option for forming a government after the countrys inconclusive election, according to party officials.

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Uh oh.
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Did Italian politics stop being a corrupt joke the second some rightwingers won?

These "grand coalitions" have typically been bad for left-leaning parties, FWIW. Continued alliances with Merkel have really weakened the SPD in Germany, for example. The Lib Dems in the UK haven't recovered from their coalition with the Tories.
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Antifar posted...

These "grand coalitions" have typically been bad for left-leaning parties, FWIW. Continued alliances with Merkel have really weakened the SPD in Germany, for example. The Lib Dems in the UK haven't recovered from their coalition with the Tories.

they've been losing seats steadily since the 1990s, though, and it doesn't accelerate in the 2000s after said coalition agreement

though it also doesn't reverse
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Didn't we have an Italian politics topic yesterday?

The options were what: Five Star, Forza, and Lega as the forerunners? None of them seemed very good (sounds familiar) so I don't know who and in what capacity any of this could be perceived as a win.
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The "five stars" are a reference to five key issues for the party: public water, sustainable transport, sustainable development, right to Internet access, and environmentalism.

This is a right-wing group, you say?
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MrToothHasYou posted...

The "five stars" are a reference to five key issues for the party: public water, sustainable transport, sustainable development, right to Internet access, and environmentalism.

This is a right-wing group, you say?

America (both parties) is rather far to the right of the rest of the first world
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Everything's relative, and just because a party's stance on one issue matches up to a certain "wing" in the US, doesn't mean they're one-to-one copies across the board.
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MrToothHasYou posted...

The "five stars" are a reference to five key issues for the party: public water, sustainable transport, sustainable development, right to Internet access, and environmentalism.

This is a right-wing group, you say?

From what I've read, the party is purposefully vague on its stances beyond a catch-all "anti-establishment nature," to the point where its legislators abstain on issues like gay rights to avoid alienating potential supporters. It has often dabbled in anti-migrant right wing stuff, but even this has faded some as it has grown.

It is not the left, but its commitment to right-wing politics isn't clear either.
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