Reports seem to indicate that Italy’s current Prime Minister Mario Draghi is set to be replaced by right wing candidate, Giorgia Meloni, in the upcoming elections.
If elected Meloni would become Italy’s first female prime minister, but unfortunately for the left, although she is a woman, she is not the ‘right’ kind of woman.
Euronews begrudgingly acknowledges her ‘wave of support’ while warning that her “Brothers of Italy party has neo-fascist roots, and promotes a message of Christianity, patriotism, motherhood and traditional family values”.
Oh no, not traditional family values…that’s the last thing a nation needs at a time of global instability.
The Guardian is somewhat kinder, and describes her as a ‘populist’, comparing her to “Viktor Orbán, Nigel Farage and Marine Le Pen”.
“They have built their success on promises of huge and regressive tax cuts, nationalist anti-immigrant and anti-refugee rhetoric (with elements of Great Replacement theories) and anti-EU and anti-euro narratives.”
https://twitter.com/RadioGenova/status/1557685190817988610
As Gript previously reported, Italy has instituted a host of measures to cut nationwide energy usage in efforts to reduce reliance on Russian gas.
A number of bemused Italian business owners have taken to twitter to express their shock and horror at the huge electricity price hikes they are being faced with.
The dire situation is reported to be hitting hard:
The 72 year old owner of a butcher shop, Luciano Massarri said:
“We’ll be probably forced to close our activity because we won’t be able to handle this situation,”
He runs a small business a few miles outside Rome.
“We are not expecting any real help, the government doesn’t care.”
“Massarri notes that electricity costs have already reached “unsustainable levels,” with bills rising to €1,400 ($1,424) and he expects the situation to worsen in the fall.”
The report continues reporting Massarri as saying,
“I have four fridges that need to be active all the time. It’s impossible to switch them off. What am I supposed to do?”
The owner of an ice-cream shop told of how his bill is €5,128 compared to last year when he paid €1,371 for 200 kWh less energy.
Italian ice cream maker in tears: "Today I received the electricity bill for July, € 5128. Last year I paid € 1371 in the exact same period consuming 200 kWh less! The kWh in 2021 cost 9 cents, today 53, increase of 468%!" It will be a very hot autumn in Italy and beyond. pic.twitter.com/wXBny1xLr5
— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) August 13, 2022
Here another man describes how his bill has increased by 520% in only one year from €17,000 to a whopping €108,000
Elsewhere Italian farmers have been staging protests much like their compatriots in The Netherlands, Germany, and recently Serbia.
Italian farmers rise up and block the road that leads from Rome to Naples. This after yet another attempted suicide by a colleague whose company ended up at auction due to the accumulated debts for the forcible culling of the entire cattle: "Now it will be chaos!" pic.twitter.com/gaW6Osapqg
— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) August 12, 2022