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Italian politician launches anti-EU party to push for ‘Italexit’

An Italian senator has launched a new political party aimed at taking Italy out of the European Union - but how much interest is there in "Italexit" among Italian voters?

Published: 23 July 2020 12:18 CEST
Italian politician launches anti-EU party to push for 'Italexit'
Photo: AFP
Gianluigi Paragone, a former TV journalist, presented his “Italexit” party on Thursday, two days after a London meeting with Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, who was instrumental in Britain's vote to quit the EU.
 
 
Paragone pointed to a survey by the Piepoli Institute from the end of June, which found that around seven percent of Italians would be likely too vote for a party campaigning to leave the EU.
 
“Consensus will only grow further, in line with the lies Europe tells us,” he said.
 
Political analyst and poll expert Renato Mannheimer said Italians' feelings on the EU had “swung widely over the past few months… though we remain the country that trusts Brussels the least”.
 
Many Italian political commentators questioned the timing of the announcement; two days after Italy secured a whopping 209 billon euros in emergency funding from the bloc, or 28 percent of the total rescue fund, intended to help EU states recover from the coronavirus crisis.
 

 
There was a perceived initial failure on the bloc's part to respond quickly enough to the coronavirus outbreak in Italy, but since then, support for the EU has risen again, Mannheimer said.
 
The large slice of the 750-billion euro recovery package earmarked for Italy would boost support further, he said.
 
“Most Italians don't want to leave the EU.Only around 30 percent – rising to 40 percent in some moments – say yes to leaving,” Mannheimer told AFP.
 
That figure rises slightly for Italians in favour of quitting the eurozone.
 
“I don't believe Paragone's party can build a large enough following for Italexit,” he said.
 
READ ALSO: 
 
Paragone, who has previous ties to far-right populist leader Matteo Salvini's League party, was elected with the Five Star Movement (M5S) 
 
He left soon after M5S formed the current Italian government with the pro-European Democratic Party (PD) last year.
 
Both M5S and the League, which are viewed as populist parties, have toned down their past anti-eurozone stance to appeal to more moderate voters

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POLITICS

Anger as Italy allows pro-life activists into abortion clinics

The Italian parliament has passed a measure by Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government allowing anti-abortion activists to enter consultation clinics, sparking outrage from opposition parties.

Published: 24 April 2024 13:05 CEST
Anger as Italy allows pro-life activists into abortion clinics

The measure adopted by the Senate late on Tuesday evening allows regional authorities to permit groups deemed to have “a qualified experience supporting motherhood” to have access to women considering abortions at clinics run by the state-funded healthcare system.

The government says the amendment merely fulfils the original aim of the country’s 1978 law legalising abortion, which says clinics can collaborate with such groups in efforts to support motherhood.

Pressure groups in several regions led by the right are already allowed access to consultation clinics, and the measure may see more join them.

Some regions, such as Marche, which is led by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, have also restricted access to the abortion pill.

Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), slammed the new law as “a heavy attack on women’s freedom”, while Five Star Movement MPs said Italy had “chosen to take a further step backwards”.

READ ALSO: What will Italy’s right-wing election victory mean for abortion rights?

Meloni has repeatedly said she has no intention of changing the abortion law, known as Law 194, but critics say she is attempting to make it more difficult to terminate pregnancies.

There have long been concerns that the election of Meloni’s hard-right coalition would further threaten womens’ reproductive rights in Italy.

Accessing safe abortions in Italy was already challenging as a majority of gynaecologists – about 63 percent according to official 2021 figures – refuse to perform them on moral or religious grounds.

In several parts of the country, including the regions of Sicily, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Molise and the province of Bolzano, the percentage of gynaecologists refusing to perform abortions is over 80 percent.

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