A Glimmer of Hope For Italy- Can The 6,000 Sardines Save Us?
By: Robert W. Locke
Tags: Populism, Europe, Italy, Far Right, Politics

It’s been raining a lot here in Italy during the last few weeks.

The mood is gloomy.

Venice was flooded and people raged about how the MOSE flood barrier had failed to work. It is still unfinished after 16 years and cost about $5 billion. The Italian press in 2017 had already labeled it a failure. An unrealistic project which was poorly designed and money siphoned off in corruption.

I can’t help comparing it to The Thames Barrier which works perfectly well and has been in use since 1982. It cost about £1.6 billion (at 2016 prices).

Flood waves of hate

But, apart from the floodwaters ruining such a beautiful and precious heritage, there is an even worse deluge of hate seeping into every aspect of Italian life. I have never seen anything like it and I have lived in Italy for 40 years.

Before I tell you about the “Sardine Movement”, let me fill you in on how and why it was born.

There are various reasons why the far-right has gained enormous consensus in the past decade. It is also a reflection of what is happening in various nations such as the USA, the UK, and many European countries.

Cas Mudde is a populist scholar at the University of Georgia and he has defined populism as

“a thin-centered ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic groups: “the pure people” and “the corrupt elite.”

An Italian recipe

The Italian recipe for far-right growth is not much different from that in other countries:-

· Anti migration

· Eurosceptic

· Demagogic nationalism (Italians first)

· Anti elite

· Power to the People

· Xenophobic & homophobic

The Italian far-right is waiting in the wings as the new coalition government (5-Star Movement + Democratic Party (PD)) struggles every day to avoid temper tantrums and squabbling. An impossible alliance because they have inherited problems that have been festering for decades.

These include an enormous public debt, a stagnant economy — the average wages have hardly grown in 25 years and of course, the elephant in the room which is tax evasion.

The EU views Italian governments like spoiled children demanding more and more while failing to obey the house rules. Almost every new government pleads for extra time, more flexibility and special treatment. But as Italy is the EU’s third-largest economy, there are inherent risks for the bloc as a whole.

According to the Financial Times, the average economic growth for each quarter is usually around 0.1%. In addition, there is an inequality gap. The latest OECD report states:

“There is a considerable gap between the richest and poorest — the top 20% of the population earn over six times as much as the bottom 20%.”

The right plays the blame game

The typical far-right rallies in the squares up and down Italy have all focused on the blame game. Whether it is immigrants, the EU or the elite, they are all the cause of our misery. Italians first and that will solve all the problems. It is astonishing how people fall for such a simplistic approach.

The populist leader of this wave of hatred, fear, and anger is Matteo Salvini who has used social media very effectively and rallied thousands of people up and down Italy. Nothing much has changed as he has always been on an electoral campaign even when he was the Minister of the Interior. It was by cleverly using these scapegoats that helped Salvini gain an impressive 40% in the opinion polls.

But there is a glimmer of hope.

Just four young people (Giulia, Andrea, Roberto, Mattia) got together a few weeks ago and organized a protest rally in a Bologna square on Nov 14. This was the date the League and Matteo Salvini had planned a campaign rally for the League candidate in the local elections.

These young adults were fed up with the usual demagogic rhetoric feeding on fear and hatred. They knew that there were millions of Italians who just did not buy into that type of populism preached by Matteo Salvini.

They were partially represented by the left-wing parties but they had rarely demonstrated or even made themselves heard on social media. Perhaps it was a mixture of disgust, apathy or a sense of powerlessness.

The organizers planned a social media campaign to get a flash mob to show up in an adjacent square in Bologna where the League had organized their rally with just 5,570 seats. It was raining that night, and the organizers got clicking on social media and aimed for 6,000 attendees. To their surprise, there were 15,000 in the pouring rain, all packed into the square just like sardines. And that was how the Sardine Movement was born.

What does the Sardine Movement hope to achieve?

Their Facebook page, 6,000 sardine already has 238,000 followers and they are planning a massive rally in Rome on Dec. 14. They are hoping 100,000 “sardines” will turn up. (Update: Rome, Dec 14. Piazza San Giovanni packed! )

There are also events planned for the same day in

*Berlin

*Paris

*Dublin

*London

*San Francisco

*Edinburgh

*Amsterdam

*Madrid

They are determined not to become another political party. They want to shout STOP to

Sexism

Inequality

Violence

Hatred

Racism

They are hoping to gather people to start acting and helping the impoverished and immigrants to gain access to government aid, housing, and health care. Their aim is to construct a more caring, inclusive, open and humane society.

They want fairer taxation for everyone. Their hope is to tax the rich more to help the poor as inequality has reached inhumane levels.

They want to swim in a different sea which is not polluted with the hateful and toxic waste. They hope that fiscal paradises will no longer be safe havens for multinationals and banks all evading tax.

The most hopeful sign is that these four young people have in a few weeks built a machine that may halt the hatred and build a more caring society.

Given that 40% of Italians now believe the sardines are Salvini’s most dangerous enemy, this is a fantastic achievement and why there is hope in our hearts.

As the Italians say:- “Speriamo bene” Let’s hope for the best!