Italy election: Populist gains send shockwaves to Brussels

If eurocrats had bothered to look, they would have seen it coming.

Since Emmanuel Macron won France's presidential election, the insistent, persistent, wisdom in Brussels has been that populist politicians were on their way out.

Marine Le Pen failed in her presidential bid there, as did the Freedom Party in Austria; Geert Wilders flopped in the Netherlands - so the stubborn understanding has gone.

Now President Macron can dream-team it with Angela Merkel all the way to an invigorated EU.Syriza in Greece is left-wing, while Le Pen's Front National is right-wing nationalist and Five Star in Italy is sure only that it is anti-establishment.

But what they have in common is that, while they may not always win elections outright, they continue to perform strongly at the polls while many traditional parties languish.


Source :- bbc