Extreme right power grab attempt in Italy

This 9 December 2018 video says about itself:

Demonstrators gathered in Turin on Saturday to protest against the high-speed train connection between France and Italy.

The so-called ‘No TAV’ activists called for the government to stop the infrastructure project, which they say would cause extensive damages to Susa valley.

“We are against the TAV because as inhabitants of the Susa Valley we would find ourselves involved in an environmental disaster. The tunnel would bring huge problems, especially for materials and rocks that are extracted,” said Mauro Rolando, one of the protesters.

‘No TAV’, the group behind the demonstration, is a movement set up to counter the construction of various high-speed railway lines in Italy and France. The name comes from the Italian acronym for Treno Alta Velocita (high speed train). The movement questions the usefulness, cost, and safety of the project and its actualisation, which they believe is being driven by European construction lobbies.

Italian construction lobbies are connected to the mafia. Susa Valley people fear that with this construction, the mafia would come to their region.

In the present Italian coalition government, the extreme right Lega party of Salvini supports the construction; while the Five Star Movement opposes it.

By Marianne Arens:

Italy: Salvini seeks coalition with fascist Fratelli d’Italia

10 August 2019

The leader of the far-right Lega, vice-premier and interior minister Matteo Salvini, is looking to end the governing coalition with the Five Star Movement (M5S). Under conditions in which no political party represents the interests of the working class, the Lega is mobilizing its right-wing radical base to take another step towards fascism.

On Thursday, Salvini visited the head of government, Giuseppe Conte. He called on him and President Sergio Mattarella to put an immediate end to the government coalition and to initiate new elections. In the European elections at the end of May, the Lega had doubled its votes to 34 percent. It is currently polling around 37 percent.

Now it wants to get rid of its weakened coalition partner, M5S, with the aim of forming a joint government with the Italian fascists Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy). This party, whose roots—through various branches—go back to the National Fascist Party of Benito Mussolini, is currently polling around 7 percent. A coalition with Forza Italia, led by former head of government Silvio Berlusconi, is also under discussion. It also stands at 7 percent.

Speaking to followers on the beach of Pescara, Salvini said on Thursday evening: “I ask the Italians to give me full power so that things can be done the way they have to be done.” In order to end the government by a vote of no confidence, he continued in a deliberately coarse tone, the elected deputies would have to be willing to get off their asses and return from vacation to parliament.

Salvini is seeking to take advantage of the present situation to prepare fascist forms of rule in a surprise coup. This goal was already strengthened by the adoption of the new, stricter security law in the Italian Senate on August 5. The Decreto Sicurezza bis has once again significantly amplified the features of the previous Salvini Decree, which has already driven tens of thousands into illegality.

While the NGO ship Open Arms has been waiting nine days on the open sea for 121 rescued migrants to be allowed to land, the Senate has once again drastically tightened the penalties for rescue at sea. The new law provides for fines ranging from €150,000 to €1 million and the immediate arrest of captains of ships sailing in Italian waters without permission. The state may now immediately seize and expropriate the vessel concerned. In addition, the law requires hotel owners and other accommodation providers to inform the authorities of newly arrived migrants within 24 hours under threat of severe penalties.

The obligation to report the presence of migrants shows that the bans and police-state measures of the new law are directed against the entire working class. This is also made clear by Article 5, which refers to public demonstrations and sporting events. It imposes heavy penalties on any “destruction, plunder and damage” in public spaces and makes the organisers liable for it. This is also directed against strikes, demonstrations and rallies by workers fighting for their wages and jobs, whose leaders can now be held liable for all damages, even if caused by provocateurs.

The new law also provides for prison sentences of one to three years for those who evade the state authorities at public events or oppose the police with “signs or other passive objects of protection” or projectiles. Funds for the police and covert investigations are also significantly increased. Here, too, the law serves to promote a police state.

Salvini owes the passage of this law in parliament to Lega’s partner M5S, as it could not have passed in the Senate without the votes of the M5S MPs. Although some of them had argued against it, in the end all M5S senators voted for it or abstained.

It was not until Wednesday, during the vote on the TAV high-speed rail project, that the government camp was openly split. The rejection of this railway project, which connects the cities of Turin and Lyon, France, by means of a mountain tunnel, was one of the central election promises of the Five Star Movement and won the votes of many environmentalists.

Salvini is aiming to hold new elections and to become the leader of a far-right government. His party received 34 percent of the votes in the recent European elections and has since recorded stronger polling results. He wants to form a coalition with the fascist Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), with Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, or with both. On Tuesday, Salvini had talks with Fratelli d’Italia leader Giorgia Meloni and with Berlusconi. However, the decision on what steps to take next lies with President Sergio Mattarella of the opposition Democratic Party (PD). If the government falls next week, he has three options: to find a new majority in the existing Senate, call new elections or appoint a “technocratic” transitional government: here.

The political crisis in Italy has an international character, regardless of its national peculiarities. The country’s ruling class is responding to growing social tensions by moving toward authoritarian and fascist rule. Similar symptoms of a deeply sick society can be found in more or less pronounced forms in every capitalist country. The problems and tasks facing the international working class as a whole are revealed in Italy as if under a microscope: here.