The Italian “Lega” of Alternative Europe

On the 16th of December, the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said that Russian sanctions can be reviewed in the next several months. In an interview with Italian radio he noticed, that “it's clear that we have the same position as the entire international Western community... but I think that this package of sanctions will be reviewed, not in the next few hours but in coming months”.

The Italian economy was hardly damaged by the sanctions. This month, Italy delayed an EU decision to automatically extend the sanctions against Russian Federation (The extension is expected to be approved by EU member countries this week after opening discussion with them on December 17).

The fact that the automatic extension of sanctions against Russia was delayed by Italy signals the beginning of a change in the geopolitical and economical identity of Italy.

Lega Nord: The first Italian party to declare a necessity for the review of the anti-Russian sanctions

The first political power, which started to develop the discussion about the review of anti-Russian sanctions, was one of the most popular political party in Italy - “Lega Nord” ( literal translation: «North League»). The party has had incredible success in the northern regions of Italy (especially in the Veneto region where the party took 50.1% of the vote in 2015) and Lombardy.

The party was founded by Umberto Bossi (who was the minister for Federal Reform for Berlusconi IV’s Cabinet) in 1991 as a federation of several regional parties of northern and central Italy. Now, the leader of “Lega Nord” is Matteo Salvini.  The main focus of the party’s ideology is a combination of political, fiscal federalism, regionalism and the defence of Italian traditions. It is critical towards the migration policies of the European Union. Ahead of the 2014 European Parliament election, Salvini started to cooperate with the “National Front”.

Euroscepticism

Under Salvini, the party started to develop euroscepticism (it is the most powerful anti-EU party in Italy). The European Union is considered  be a part of a liberal pro-American structure, that is manipulating european countries with an economic weapon, the Euro, which was metaphorically described by Salvini as a “crime against mankind”. The party is developing the project of an alternative Europe - “Europe of the regions”. For the MEP elections - Salvini presented the party’s logo with “Basta Euro” ( “No more Euro”) and obtained 6.2% of the vote and 5 MEPs.

Terrorism and Immigration

One of the stances of the political program of the party is the criticism of illegal immigration. According to the political program of the party, the immigrants (especially from Muslim counties) are destroying the European “christian identity” of Italy and Europe. They also consider the ignorant migrant politics of the EU as the reason for the growth of terrorism and Islamic radicalism in Europe (it’s very close to Marine Le Pen’s position on immigration).

The allies of “Lega Nord” and the project of alternative non-liberal Europe

Lega Nord, since June of 2015, is a member of the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENL) group, which includes the National Front (France), Freedom Party of Austria (Austria), Party for freedom (Netherlands), Congress of the New Right (Poland), Flemish Interest (Belgium) and 2 independent participants: one from United Kingdom (Janice Atkinson of UKIP) and another from Romania (elected as Conservative).

All these parties, who are allies of Lega Nord, are fighting for an alternative, conservative anti-liberal and anti-American continental Europe, and as a result, are becoming more and more popular (like the National Front - who gained 6,820,000 voters in the regional elections). This means that we remain on the eve of great changes in all the Rimland-block, which will cause the re-orientation of Europe - towards the Eurasian geopolitical block.