Comments by "peabase" (@peabase) on "Salvini blames austerity for French unrest" video.
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@24 Arbfan Your conspiracy theories aside, it's not austerity, it's taxation they protesters are unhappy with. The two terms are practically antitheses.
It's interesting to note that the same forces that brought Salvini to power buoyed up Macron. While Macron isn't a populist and Salvini clearly is, the electorates in both France and Italy were willing to stake their hopes on unknown political entities, and now both are paying the price. Even if Salvini and Macron were the most capable of leaders, they simply lack the political foundations to form successful governments. Creating a political movement from scratch is one thing, but making it capable of governing is quite another. But you may be right about elitism, but I would rather call it clientilism or even cronyism. Sadly, both Italy and France are prone to it -- and always have been, I'm afraid. I don't however, see any connection with globalism.
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@24 Arbfan You have a naive view of politics. Public discontent towards established parties brought both Salvini and Macron to power. It wasn't ideology that got them elected, but a vague promise of change. Both the Italians and the French took a chance -- clutched at straws, if you will.
Still, more so than elsewhere, European voters are fickle, often switching party allegiances from one election to another. As a rule of thumb, parties in government see their support erode, while the opposition makes gains. So for a part of the electorate, it always ends up in tears. Why? Because the world constantly throws challenges at us, and local governments have only limited means to tackle them. You blame globalism, but the only answer is international co-operation. Since we can agree on very little globally, let's at least co-operate regionally.
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@24 Arbfan Aw, you were hurt by my political naivety ad hominem, but you have no qualms about throwing it back at me. Fortunately, I'm not thin-skinned.
Sure, Salvini promised to curb down on migration, which isn't wrong per se, but the effect on solving Italy's real problems -- its looming debt crisis and chronic economic woes -- is negligible. Smoke and mirrors, in other words, but as a populist and opportunist, he has to seize the opportunity and blame migrants in order to shore up support. It's part and parcel of populism to blame someone else for your self-made problems. He's blaming the EU, too, but the EU isn't defenceless.
I already indicated that Macron isn't a populist, but he did manage to gain the trust of those who in other circumstances would have fallen prey to the populists, or he wouldn't have completely taken the wind out of Marine Le Pen's sails. You crediting MSM with Macron's victory is just another conspiracy theory. Also, unlike that other well-known populist, Trump, European leaders wisely refrain from choosing sides in one another's elections.
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@24 Arbfan Your conspiracy theories are fact now? That's rich. Conspiracy theories cherry-pick facts, but those facts that conflict with the theory are silently ignored.
Anti-establishment isn't just populism. The former seeks to change the status quo, but the means don't necessarily involve the cheap trickery of the latter. I don't personally care for it, but at least the communists (or what's left of them) adhere to a strict ideology. Your lot, on the other hand, makes stuff up as you go along. Did I already say you're a bunch of opportunists?
Earlier, you were praising Salvini for curbing migration, as if that was somehow relevant to this discussion. Now you admit migration isn't -- economically speaking -- a problem after all. I wonder, does that put you in hot water with fellow right-wing populists, who insist migrants are the root of all evil?
And no one was sneaking in premises that Italy is responsible for the migrant crisis. They are, however, responsible for their looming debt crisis and chronic economic woes -- those were my exact words. I know, like an automaton, you're going to blame globalism again, but why do other EU countries, who're in the same boat, prosper?
If not with Germany, the Italians have to compete with other countries on the global marketplace, China for instance. Italy can try to isolate itself from the world economy, but what good will that do on the long term? They're going to fall behind even more. Now they're still in a position to fix things, but they won't succeed if they're going to copy you and blame imaginary bogeymen.
For the record, Merkel didn't start the migrant crisis and she didn't end it either, but she did bring relief to the overwhelmed border countries. There's no factual basis for claiming that it brought in extra migrants -- the figures clearly show the number of new arrivals tapering off. Countries like Hungary, and more particularly their silly populist-in-charge, Orban, should thank her for it.
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