One thing’s for sure: the anti-establishment has won
The Italian elections have resulted in a hung parliament, with the populist Five Star Movement receiving the most number of votes. The party was founded by a comedian, and is now headed by the 31-year-old Luigi di Maio. The extreme right-wing League, headed by a Le Pen and Trump fan Matteo Salvini, comes second. It is likely that the two parties will broker a coalition deal, which could possibly take weeks.
The erstwhile prime minister, Matteo Renzi, head the centrist Democratic Party, which surprisingly performed the worst during the election. Perhaps the only silver lining to this election was how badly Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia performed.
“The vote was a stinging rejection of traditional parties, and of national leadership that has been frustrated by a flood of migrants from Africa and the Middle East and stymied by years of stagnation,” editorialises the New York Times. Both the League and the Five Star Movement want to abandon the euro, and are not the biggest fans of the European Union. Salvini, in fact, is openly for an Ital-exit. Di Maio has been far more ambiguous.
“Whatever government emerges will have a tough time satisfying voters’ expectations while coping with Italy’s real economic problems, including the largest public debt in the European Union and high youth unemployment. As Greece learned earlier, it’s one thing to rage against European rules; it’s a far different thing to try to buck them.”
“Italy now poses a major challenge to the European project, already badly battered by the Brexit vote in Britain and the illiberal drift of Poland, Hungary and other East and Central European countries,” the New York Times writes. “Italy is not likely to quit the union or drop the euro, but a government hostile to both is a headache to Brussels and the deeper integration championed by President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. They will now need to decide whether to press ahead or hold off a while.”
Germany’s dream of a grand coalition is being realised
While the Italians have a massive task laid out before them, Germany’s lost post-election wait for a government is finally over, writes The Economist. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has agreed to a coalition with the Christian Democrats (CDU), headed by Angela Merkel, and the Christian Social Union (CSU).
“That puts Germany’s long months of coalition wrangling to an end—the election was held on September 24th—and gives Europe’s largest economy a stable government. It also secures Mrs Merkel’s reappointment as chancellor, which is expected to take place in the Bundestag on March 14th.”
“Hammered out before the SPD members voted, the coalition deal provides a detailed overview of the new government’s agenda. Much of it concerns the disbursement of Germany’s giant budget surplus, which hit a record €37 billion last year. Child care will be expanded, there will be tax cuts for middle and lower earners, increased infrastructure investment and a push to improve internet connections. The SPD gets strict new limits on the use of short-term work contracts. Meanwhile the CDU/CSU’s agenda marks the law-and-order sections: refugee arrivals will be capped at an annual range of 180,000-220,000 and family-reunification will be limited to 1,000 a month plus “hardship cases”. Of a wider vision for Germany, and particularly its place in the world, there is relatively little.”
The new deal recommits to Europe, and the German government promises close co-operation with France’s Macron on defence and taxation. The new government will also increase Germany’s contributions to the EU.
A new grand coalition isn’t likely to be particularly strong, however. This will probably be Merkel’s last term as Chancellor. “Broader long-term trends, evident in the election, have not gone away: German politics is still fragmenting, society is still becoming more unequal, culture wars continue to gain ground, the once-mighty SPD is still in a crisis and long-term economic and geopolitical disruption still looms over the comfortable German homestead.”
“Nonetheless, the result also serves as a reminder not to overdo the gloom about Germany. It took a long time to reach a new government. But a new government has been reached. It will be stable and in some areas—Europe and investment, for example—will improve on the last. Mrs Merkel remains her country’s most popular politician and seems once more fully in command of her departure date. Another wave of political obituaries for her are today consigned to the filing cabinet, for another day,” the Economist writes.
“Fake news” in Singapore
Singapore has a new national agenda, according to Kirsten Han in the Washington Post: tackling fake news. Following on Donald Trump’s attack rhetoric, the country is apparently awash with “fake” news, which is essentially anti-establishment. The government’s new project, therefore, is to put an end to this— despite the fact that there is no independent, credible press. Han writes that this lack forces people to go look for other sources of news, which might not be ethical or professional. It is in this space that fake news thrives.
“Singapore, an island country that’s effectively been a single-party state for decades, already has a wide range of legislation that curbs free expression and public discourse. Under existing laws, bloggers can be sued for defamation, private Facebook posts can trigger contempt of court proceedings, and journalists can be investigated and issued warnings just for doing their jobs. There are also laws against actions to “promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes” or the intent to “wound religious feelings”,” Han writes.
There is no Freedom of Information Act, which essentially allows the government access to lots of in-depth data. “Recent years have also shown an increased clampdown on dissent and civil-society space. Activists have had their homes searched and their property seized, all without needing a warrant (as is allowed under Singaporean law). A human-rights activist is being charged with vandalism, among other charges of organizing “illegal assemblies,” for posting two sheets of paper in a subway car. Proposed amendments to the Films Act include expanding the power to search and seize without warrant beyond police officers to civil servants,” she explains.
“The irony of the situation, though, is that efforts to outlaw “fake news” or to further regulate online space might actually do more to create an environment for disinformation and baseless conspiracy theories to thrive.”
“Disinformation is an issue worth tackling. But responses need to be carefully balanced against curbs on freedom of expression, and cannot be undertaken with haste. Singaporeans don’t need more laws to tell us what we can or cannot say; what we need are genuine engagement and openness, so we can be better equipped to come to our own conclusions,” she concludes.