The Vaccine of Reason

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Vaccine of Reason THE VACCINE OF REASON Liberty and Growth after the Pandemic Edited by Nicola Galati and Lorena Villa The Vaccine of Reason Liberty and Growth after the pandemic Preface by Davide Giacalone Afterword by Giuseppe Benedetto Edited by Nicola Galati and Lorena Villa The Vaccine of Reason – Liberty and Growth after the Pandemic Edited by Nicola Galati and Lorena Villa, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi European Liberal Forum asbl Rue d’Idalie 11-13, boite 6, 1050 Ixelles, Brussels (BE) [email protected] www.liberalforum.eu Fondazione Luigi Einaudi Onlus Via della Conciliazione, 10, 00193 Roma [email protected] www.fondazioneluigieinaudi.it Translation courtesy of Matteo Quattrociocchi Proofreading and language editing by Antonella Spagnoli Graphic design by Martina Raspa Printer: Rubbettino Editore s.r.l., Italy, 2021 ISBN: 978-2-39067-004-9 Published by the European Liberal Forum in cooperation with Fonda- zione Luigi Einaudi Onlus. Co-funded by the European Parliament. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) alone. These views do not necessarily reflect those of the European Parliament and/or the European Liberal Forum asbl. ABOUT ELF The European Liberal Forum (ELF) is the official political foundation of the European Liberal Party, the ALDE Party. To- gether with 47 member organisations, we work all over Eu- rope to bring new ideas into the political debate, to provide a platform for discussion, and to empower citizens to make their voices heard. ELF was founded in 2007 to strengthen the liberal and democrat movement in Europe. Our work is guided by liberal ideals and a belief in the principle of freedom. We stand for a future-oriented Europe that offers opportunities for eve- ry citizen. ELF is engaged on all political levels, from the local to the European. We bring together a diverse network of national foundations, think tanks and other experts. At the same time, we are also close to, but independent from, the ALDE Party and other Liberal actors in Europe. In this role, our forum serves as a space for an open and informed exchange of views between a wide range of different actors. FONDAZIONE LUIGI EINAUDI ONLUS The Luigi Einaudi Foundation is a think tank promoting libe- ral ideas and the liberal political thought. Founded in 1962 by Mr. Giovanni Malagodi, the Foundation promotes liberalism as an instrument to elaborate original responses to the comple- xity of the current issues related to globalization and to the progressively increasing technological evolution, with the goal of fostering individual liberties and economic prosperity. The Foundation engages in guaranteeing to every citizen the condi- tions to grow as a human being, to live in wealth, and thrive in peace, through the recognition of diversities, the safeguard of human liberties and freedoms, as well as through the promo- tion of constructive discussions on facts and ideas. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE Davide Giacalone 1 SECTION I – ECONOMICS 9 Coronaeconomy Davide Giacalone 10 Disguised as Marshall Davide Giacalone 12 Coronavirus. The Luigi Einaudi Foundation’s opinion: “Act today for the benefit of tomorrow” Davide Giacalone 14 Proclaiming recession Davide Giacalone 16 The big misunderstanding. Italian people don’t deserve it Elena Vigliano 18 Sidenote to the eight points: from a number to a formula for its recovery Brunella Bruno 20 Serological analysis: a test #torecover Gippy Rubinetti 23 50 billion urge, immediately Davide Giacalone 25 If not now, when: adjusting corporate taxation to the European OECD average Elena Vigliano 27 A massive mess Giuseppe Bozzi 29 The coronavirus crisis: which opportunities Emma Galli – Paola Brunetti 30 After the virus, the chaos Davide Giacalone 33 A republic funded on labour and on the “Landinis” Massimiliano Armetta 35 Credit and eyesore Davide Giacalone 37 An isolated but significant downgrading Davide Giacalone 39 Too much care, too little relaunch Davide Giacalone 41 Forced to grow Davide Giacalon 43 SECTION II - POLITICS 45 Incredibles and incredulous Davide Giacalone 46 Don’t ask science Davide Giacalone 48 See you out for dinner Davide Giacalone 49 Covid-19 pandemic – the real challenge: planning tomorrow. Three suggestions for a concrete action Mattia Crosetto 51 Appealing for freedom Carlo Marsonet 55 An anti-fake news task force today. What about tomorrow? Andrea Pruiti Ciarello 57 The politics of pandemic Enzo Iachello 61 Fake news strike again. The consequences of a false information in Italy Martina Dlabajovà 65 The believers at the time of coronavirus. How the Catholics live the current threat Pietro Natale Belluso 69 The price of freedom is the everlasting surveillance Lorenzo Infantino – Emanuele Raco 73 Public opinion is always the same… or nearly Giuseppe Benedetto 77 The App Immuni Sergio Boccadutri 79 SECTION III – LEGAL 83 Are we more Khomeinist than the Ayatollah? Nicola Galati 84 From the habeas corpus to the videas corpus Nicola Galati 88 On Crimes and Punishments at the time of Coronavirus Ezechia Paolo Reale 90 The health emergency and the rule of law in Italy Lorena Villa - Nicola Galati 96 Covid-19 and accidents at work. Serious risks for the entrepreneurs Giuseppe Benedetto – Antonio Trimboli 99 The employer’s liability for infections from Covid-19 Massimiliano Annetta 101 SECTION IV – ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS 103 The need of a committee inquiring on the management of the Covid-19 emergency Andrea Pruiti Ciarello 104 The damages caused by populism and demagogy at the times of Covid-19 Andrea Pruiti Ciarello 107 Back on board, MPs! Ezechia Paolo Reale 110 Redistributive policies failed. Autonomy is the right path Lorenzo Infantino – Luigi Mascheroni 115 Decrees à gogo, troubles and opacity. Conte tested positive to the “authoritarian”-virus Andrea Pruiti Ciarello 118 The law of the emergency. Ex facto oritur jus? Ezechia Paolo Reale 121 In the name of public health we are suspending our constitutional guarantees Giuseppe Bozzi 127 The Constitution is not an optional Giuseppe Bozzi 129 Covid-19. A chance to rethink to a federalism “from the bottom” Lorena Villa 132 Too much behind the curtains Ezechia Paolo Reale 135 Conte tested positive to the “God Almighty”-syndrome Piero Tony 137 The administrative simplification. When the remedy to evil is worse than evil Giovanni Bovi 143 The Relaunch Decree: the art of getting the easy more difficult Marco Mariani 146 SECTION V – INTERNATIONAL 151 The mistake and the relaunch Davide Giacalone 152 Last call Europe: Einaudi’s warning to the Europe of tomorrow Giovanni Bovi 154 Fair, necessary, urgent Davide Giacalone 157 The European Union risks to be a painful regret Andrea Pruiti Ciarello 159 The lack of a European Civil Protection Niccolò Rinaldi 163 Compromise and dull phalanxes Davide Giacalone 165 What is the EU doing for Italy? Enea Franza 167 Sovereignism. A threat for the future of Europe Paola Brunetti - Emma Galli 172 ESM. Not only Greece Roberto Ricciuti 176 Europe is a path Roberto Ricciuti 178 The EU puzzle: is building a common fiscal policy even thinkable? Paola Brunetti – Emma Galli 180 ESM Matteo Grossi 182 The future of Italy is in Europe - Paola Brunetti Emma Galli 185 The liberal model of the Western World at stake Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata 188 Authoritarian drift in China: the handling of the virus confirms so Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata 191 Lessons on the World learnt after the Covid-19 pandemic Maddalena Pezzotti 196 CONCLUSIONS Nicola Galati 203 AFTERWORD. The virus and the thin red line that Conte (already) crossed Giuseppe Benedetto 207 PREFACE “Justice does not exist when freedom lacks”. Luigi Einaudi Freedom is responsibility. Reckless persons are not free men, but degenerates seeking ultimate limitations upon which infringing. In certain situations, it is necessary to put constraints to freedom for reasons of security and public health. I have a fast car, I am a good driver, why should my freedom to exceed speed limits be limited? Because streets are for everyone, be- cause whoever has this type of thought is probably a mytho- maniac, because if this person is going to have a car accident and survives this will indirectly generate a public health-related cost and, in any case, because it would be an enormous risk for other drivers. That’s why his freedom to exceed the speed limit shall be constrained. Other thing is instead when it seems like our legs are being pulled, when the government thinks that enclosing people at home seems a good strategy to save their positions. The path of the reason goes always through the alle- ged absolute truths, avoiding dictators. Fondazione Luigi Einaudi asked the Presidency of the Council to read the reports of the Scientific Technical- Com mittee (from here on, STC). Namely, these reports were the grounds for the government to order restrictions of freedom for citizens. The Presidency denied the Foundation request, and this latter started a legal action. The Tribunal ordered their di- sclosure. The Presidency then appointed Avvocatura dello Stato (technical organ which has the advantage to be formally sepa- rated from the public administration it defends whilst belon- ging to the state administration) to appeal before the Italian Council of the State. They changed their minds pending trial: they withdrew their appeal and published the reports. Some have considered Fondazione Luigi Einaudi as against the appli- cation of the COVID-19 related restrictions. This is profoundly wrong. Freedom shall not be safeguarded by applying any pos- sible limitation to it – limitations that, as we have seen, may sometimes be necessary. Freedom is safeguarded when limi- tations to it are grounded on a legal basis. Is the government ordering people to stay home after they have read the STC re- ports? All right, I’ll stay home. May I read these reports as well? What if the answer is “no”? If the government says “no”, then I should imply that anyone in a foreseeable future is allowed to restrict my freedom with such serious measures on the basis of confidential documents.
Recommended publications
  • Book Reviews
    italian culture, Vol. xxxii No. 2, September 2014, 138–60 Book Reviews Fictions of Appetite: Alimentary Discourses in Italian Modernist Literature. By Enrico Cesaretti. Pp. vii + 272. Oxford: Peter Lang. 2013. Aside from a few, notable examples, such as Gian-Paolo Biasin’s I sapori della modernità (1991), gastro-criticism is a fairly new multi-disciplinary approach to literature that incorpo- rates literary studies, anthropology, sociology, semiotics and history to explore cultural production. Enrico Cesaretti’s gastro-critical approach to Italian Modernism brings together articles previously published; but here they are revised in order to read early twentieth century Italian writers and texts from a new perspective. The four chapters explore both well-known and nearly forgotten texts by authors such as F. T. Marinetti, Aldo Palazzeschi, Paola Masino, Massimo Bontempelli, and Luigi Pirandello through the common thematic of food, eating, depravation and hunger. Cesaretti notes that “virtually every major twentieth-century Western intellectual from Freud onward, has refl ected on the multiple cultural roles and implications of food and eating” (3). Modernism brought renewed focus on the body, so the trope of food, or lack thereof, becomes an important semiotic concern for writers of the period. Cesaretti’s selection of authors and texts stems from a chronological closeness more so than a great stylistic affi nity, and he is conscious of trying to unite his authors under the umbrella of the term Modernism, which, as he notes, has been problematic in Italian literary critical circles. For Cesaretti, these fi ve authors all emphasize food, hunger, and related tropes in their works because of historical reality (food shortages in Italy during the interwar years among others) and because of Modernism’s emphasis on the body and its functions.
    [Show full text]
  • Uef-Spinelli Group
    UEF-SPINELLI GROUP MANIFESTO 9 MAY 2021 At watershed moments in history, communities need to adapt their institutions to avoid sliding into irreversible decline, thus equipping themselves to govern new circumstances. After the end of the Cold War the European Union, with the creation of the monetary Union, took a first crucial step towards adapting its institutions; but it was unable to agree on a true fiscal and social policy for the Euro. Later, the Lisbon Treaty strengthened the legislative role of the European Parliament, but again failed to create a strong economic and political union in order to complete the Euro. Resulting from that, the EU was not equipped to react effectively to the first major challenges and crises of the XXI century: the financial crash of 2008, the migration flows of 2015- 2016, the rise of national populism, and the 2016 Brexit referendum. This failure also resulted in a strengthening of the role of national governments — as shown, for example, by the current excessive concentration of power within the European Council, whose actions are blocked by opposing national vetoes —, and in the EU’s chronic inability to develop a common foreign policy capable of promoting Europe’s common strategic interests. Now, however, the tune has changed. In the face of an unprecedented public health crisis and the corresponding collapse of its economies, Europe has reacted with unity and resolve, indicating the way forward for the future of European integration: it laid the foundations by starting with an unprecedented common vaccination strategy, for a “Europe of Health”, and unveiled a recovery plan which will be financed by shared borrowing and repaid by revenue from new EU taxes levied on the digital and financial giants and on polluting industries.
    [Show full text]
  • Lawyers, European Law, and the Contentious Transformation of the Port of Genoa
    From Marx to Market: Lawyers, European Law, and the Contentious Transformation of the Port of Genoa Accepted for publication, Law & Society Review Tommaso Pavone* What happens when international courts are asked to tackle local political controversies and their judgments subsequently spark contentious resistance? In the European Union (EU), scholars have posited that the politicization of the often– liberalizing rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) provokes Euroscepticism and non–compliance. In contrast, I argue that contentious politics may also produce permissive conditions for Europeanist cause lawyers to promote awareness of EU law and mobilize support for liberalization. To unpack this claim, I conduct an intensive case study of perhaps the most explosive controversy in Italy to generate litigation before the ECJ: The 1991 “Port of Genoa” case, where the public monopoly rights of a centuries–old dockworkers’ union were challenged. Leveraging interviews, court and newspaper records, public opinion data, and litigation statistics, I trace how –– despite dockworkers’ vigorous resistance –– a pair of entrepreneurial lawyers liberalized Italy’s largest port by combining strategic litigation with a public relations campaign to mobilize a compliance constituency. I conclude with insights the case study offers into the contemporary politics of transnational legal governance. Of all transnational legal orders (Halliday & Shaffer 2015), the European Union (EU) represents an exemplary process of “integration through law” (Kelemen 2011). The conventional view is that the construction of a liberalized common market and a “supranational constitution” (Stone Sweet & Brunell 1998) in Europe can be largely attributed to the “quiet” collaborations of national courts and the European * The author is grateful to the National Science Foundation (grant no.
    [Show full text]
  • Mr Giuseppe CONTE, President of the Council of Ministers of Italy
    Mr Giuseppe CONTE Palazzo Chigi Piazza Colonna 370 00187 Roma Italy Brussels, 20.07.2020 To: Mr Giuseppe CONTE, President of the Council of Ministers of Italy Subject: Crew changes in Covid-19 times – Save our Seafarers, call for action Dear Mr Conte, We, the European and International social partners for maritime transport together with our maritime partners, would like to call upon you to show political leadership and commitment to the welfare of seafarers. We appreciate the efforts of the Italian authorities, but still more needs to be done to relieve seafarers and facilitate crew changes. These are currently only taking place at an estimated level of 30% of what is needed. Seafarers are playing an essential role in maintaining the global flow of energy, food, medicines and medical supplies by ship. Many seafarers have been away from home for months, unable to leave their ships and return home because of travel restrictions imposed by governments. Meanwhile seafarers who have been rostered to replace them are being prevented from doing so by, amongst other things, the absence of facilities for obtaining visas to travel to the places where they are scheduled to join their ships – including the Schengen area. At least 200,000 and up to 300,000 seafarers worldwide currently need to be relieved and this number rises with every week that passes. Some of these seafarers have now spent 15 months or more continuously on board. An equal number of fresh crewmembers must travel to join ships if their long-serving colleagues are to be relieved. First and foremost this is a humanitarian crisis that must be solved in order to protect seafarers that have been on ships for far too long.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Contemporary European Research Euroscepticism Between
    Journal of Contemporary European Research Volume 17, Issue 2 (2021) Research Article Euroscepticism between Populism and Technocracy: The Case of Italian Lega and Movimento 5 Stelle Franco Zappettini and Marzia Maccaferri Citation Zappettini, F. and Maccaferri, M. (2021). ‘Euroscepticism between Populism and Technocracy: The Case of Italian Lega and Movimento 5 Stelle’ in, Journal of Contemporary European Research 17 (2): 239-257. https://doi.org/10.30950/jcer.v17i2.1184 First published at: www.jcer.net Volume 17, Issue 2 (2021) Franco Zappettini and Marzia Maccaferri Abstract This paper analyses the digital communication of Italian parties Lega and Movimento 5 Stelle during their campaigns for the European Parliament elections (January-May 2019). We focus on the Italian case as it is representative of a generalised shift in European public discourse towards an overt delegitimation of the European project and its re-imagination. In the Italian case, Lega and Movimento 5 Stelle, which were in a Government coalition for fourteen months, have been instrumental in Italy’s shift from a strong Europhile country to one of the most Eurosceptic. However, while Lega has definitely aligned itself with a strong right-wing populist agenda, Movimento 5 Stelle has promoted a populist technocratic vision of democracy. Our analysis shows that the articulation of Eurosceptic discourses from both parties by and large reflects the two stances above with Lega’s messages (primarily produced by its leader Matteo Salvini) characterised by a ‘hyperled’ style of communication and stronger nativist elements (for example the appeal to an ethno-centric and ‘sovereign’ idea of Italy) than those of Movimento 5 Stelle, which instead relied on a ‘horizontal’ communicative style.
    [Show full text]
  • EP Elections 2014
    EP Elections 2014 Biographies of new MEPs Please find the biographies of all the new MEPs elected to the 8th European Parliamentary term. The information has been collated from published sources and, in many cases, subject to translation from the native language. We will be contacting all MEPs to add to their biographical information over the summer, which will all be available on Dods People EU in due course. EU Elections 2014 Source: European Parliament- 1 - EP Overview (13/06/2014) List of countries: Austria Germany Poland Belgium Greece Portugal Bulgaria Hungary Romania Croatia Ireland Slovakia Cyprus Italy Slovenia Czech Latvia Spain Republic Denmark Lithuania Sweden United Estonia Luxembourg Kingdom Finland Malta France Netherlands EU Elections 2014 - 2 - Austria o People's Party (ÖVP) > EPP o Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) > S&D o Freedom Party (FPÖ) > NI o The Greens (GRÜNE) > Greens/EFA o New Austria (NEOS) > ALDE People’s Party (ÖVP) Claudia Schmidt (ÖVP, Austria) 26 April 1963 (FEMALE) Political: Councils/Public Bodies Member, Municipal Council, City of Salzburg 1999-; Chair, Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) Parliamentary Group, Salzburg Municipal Council 2004-09; Member, responsible for construction and urban development, Salzburg city government, 2009- Party posts: ÖVP: Vice-President, Salzburg, Member of the Board, Salzburg, Political Interest: Disability (social affairs) Personal: Non-political Career: Disability support institution (Lebenshilfe) Salzburg: Manager for special needs education 1989-1996, Officer responsible for
    [Show full text]
  • Italy's Conte Warns of 'Riskiest Weeks', Urges EU Unity 16 March 2020
    Italy's Conte warns of 'riskiest weeks', urges EU unity 16 March 2020 and only venture outside alone. "Scientists tell us that we have not yet reached the peak. These are the riskiest weeks and we need the utmost precaution," said Conte. Italy is facing two simultaneous threats to its healthcare system. World-class hospitals in the richer north where the overwhelming majority of the deaths and infections have been reported are running out of beds and relying on overstretched staff. But Conte fears that medical centres in the poorer south which has largely avoided contagion will be Credit: CC0 Public Domain unable to cope should it be hit just as hard. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned "We can no longer afford behavioural errors," said Monday that his country was entering "the riskiest Conte. weeks" and urged a coordinated European response to the coronavirus pandemic. "Things like people leaving Milan on weekends to spend time with their family or at their residences in "European coordination on health and economic the south must absolutely stop." measures is needed," Conte told the Corriere della Sera newspaper ahead of a planned The virus "is our most important challenge of the videoconference Monday between Group of Seven past decades," Conte said. (G7) leaders. © 2020 AFP "It is time for courageous choices and Italy can offer a significant contribution as the country that was the first in Europe to have have experienced such a wide spread of the virus," he said. Italy was the first EU member state to shutter schools and almost all businesses to try to slow a global pandemic that has killed 1,809 people in the Mediterranean country since last month.
    [Show full text]
  • Italy's Di Maio Dismisses Talk of Pandemic Debt Cancellation
    Luigi Di Maio Italy’s Di Maio dismisses talk of pandemic debt cancellation But foreign minister and former Five Star Movement leader says EU fiscal rules no longer fit for purpose Luigi Di Maio: ‘We must focus on spending this money in the most productive way for Italy’ © AFP via Getty Images Miles Johnson and Davide Ghiglione in Rome 5 HOURS AGO Italy must pay back all of the additional public borrowing it has taken on to combat the Covid-19 crisis and does not need to resort to cancelling any of its government debt, the country’s foreign minster Luigi Di Maio said. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Di Maio played down recent debate inside the Italian government over the possibility that Rome could ask the European Central Bank to wipe out pandemic-linked borrowing. He argued that the large public sector debt of the eurozone’s third-biggest economy was sustainable. “The objective has to be a sustainable debt and a good debt,” he said. “There has been a great debate about the debt incurred during the pandemic. I believe instead that we must now focus on spending this money in the best productive way for Italy. We need to make sure that these debt investments can be repaid and that they are productive investments.” Italy’s public debt is forecast to rise above 160 per cent of gross domestic product this year as a result of the sharp economic contraction caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the large stimulus packages launched by the government to combat it.
    [Show full text]
  • Europe and the Welfare State in the Debate About Italian Budgetary Law by Francesco Castelli
    Europe and the welfare state in the debate about Italian budgetary law By Francesco Castelli The general election of March 2018 and the appointment of the so-called Yellow-Green government brought about a season of financial turmoil as well as harsh confrontation between Italy and the European institutions. The governmental coalition – composed of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the far-right League – pushed forward a mix of policies that raised more than some concern about the stability of Italian public finances. This lack of trust was also motivated by the belligerent rhetoric adopted by the two parties when it came to budget stability and the relationship between Rome and Brussels. Both Mr. Salvini’s League and Mr. Di Maio’s Five Star Movement repeatedly depicted financial markets as ‘a bunch of profiteers’ and the EU institutions as made up of ‘unelected technocrats’. The two leaders made it clear that the well-being of Italians and the enactment of the ‘Government Contract’ had to be put before compliance with EU economic parameters or the reactions of financial markets. In spite of the rise in the cost of debt and the widening spread between Italian and German government bonds, the cabinet led by Giuseppe Conte kept advocating for expansionary measures, claiming that its policies would reignite the stagnant Italian economy. In its earliest months, the Conte cabinet translated words into reality and launched its two flagship measures: ‘Quota 100’, a reduction of the retirement age requirements strongly advocated by Salvini’s League and the Five Star’s ‘Reddito di cittadinanza’ (‘citizen income’), a social policy halfway between a poverty reduction measure and an unemployment benefit.
    [Show full text]
  • Alma Mater Studiorum – Università Di Bologna Dual Award Phd Con Monash University
    Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna Dual Award PhD con Monash University DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN Traduzione, Interpretazione e Interculturalità Ciclo XXIX Settore Concorsuale di afferenza: 10/L1 – LINGUE, LETTERATURE E CULTURE INGLESE E ANGLO-AMERICANA Settore Scientifico disciplinare: L-LIN/12 – LINGUA E TRADUZIONE – LINGUA INGLESE TITOLO TESI Misogynistic Hate Speech on Social Networks: a Critical Discourse Analysis Presentata da: Beatrice Spallaccia Coordinatrice Dottorato Relatrice Prof. Raffaella Baccolini Prof. Raffaella Baccolini Relatrice Prof. Rita Wilson Co-relatrice: Prof. Delia Carmela Chiaro Esame finale anno 2017 2 After all, the public cybersphere isn’t actually public if half the people are being told to get the fuck out Emma Jane 3 Acknowledgments My first acknowledgment goes to the supervisors of my thesis, Prof. Raffaella Baccolini, Prof. Rita Wilson, and Prof. Delia Chiaro, not only for their insightful comments on online misogyny and their contributions to the development of my thesis, but also for their continuous support, which helped me to conduct this research both in Italy and in Australia, and to reduce the emotional toll that sometimes comes with the analysis of a social problem like misogynistic hate speech. I would also like to thank Caitlin Roper and Coralie Alison for providing me an extensive database to study their online abuse, and Dr. Nicola Henry for our interesting conversation on technology-facilitated sexual violence and harassment, at La Trobe University (Melbourne) in September 2015. All their contributions were a valuable resource for my thesis, and they helped me to develop a more structured, interdisciplinary, and intercultural analysis of online misogynistic hate speech.
    [Show full text]
  • UTOPIA WEEKLY REPORT ___Renzi-Conte, Between Clashes and Truces
    UTOPIA WEEKLY REPORT February 21, 2020 Renzi-Conte, between clashes and truces If ever there was a need, the four “fundamen- the Lower House his group voted then times tal” points set out by Matteo Renzi in view of with the opposition against the government his face to face with Premier Giuseppe Conte on the ‘Milleproroghe’ omnibus decree. It is make it clear that the clash started on the re- against this background that Renzi and Conte form of the statute of limitations has become have agreed to meet next week, formally to an all-out quarrel between Renzi’s Italia Viva try to get out of a now permanent row that (IV) and its ruling coalition partners. The blocks the executive’s activity and with it also proposals put forward by the former mayor of the country. Much more realistically, how- Florence have all the earmarks to shatter the ever, the two will measure their real power re- current parliamentary majority and it is pre- lationship, among threats of departure from cisely for this trivial reason that they are born the ruling coalition or calls to gather centrist as a worthless piece of paper. Having them MPs to shore up the Conte II cabinet in Par- summoned, however, represents yet another liament. Not to mention the delicate match of gauntlet launched at the allies’ address, as public appointments, where the allies have well as the existence of a real counterprogram already stumbled upon a stalemate on the never agreed before which opposes the Conte RAI public broadcaster waiting to address agenda to relaunch Italy.
    [Show full text]
  • Type Document Title Here
    Respite not resolution: Italian Euroscepticism in the new policy cycle Blog post by Associate Alessandro Gangarossa, 13 September 2019 September 10th provided a rare boost for pro-Europeans in the euro zone’s third largest economy. Movimento 5 Stelle’s Giuseppe Conte won approval in parliament for his new government, replacing the nationalist Lega with the centre-left Partito Democratico. Former PD prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, also secured the important economic affairs portfolio in the European Commission: he will have responsibility for EU fiscal rules, the reform and application of which have existential issues for Italy for nearly a decade. Relief in Rome was echoed in Brussels this week, with a gushing reception for Conte from the EU’s outgoing presidents Tusk and Juncker. There is even speculation the 14 MEPs of the anti-establishment M5S could affiliate with the pro-European Greens. They broke ranks with Lega earlier in the summer to support incoming commission president Ursula von der Leyen, votes that proved decisive in her confirmation. Source: Chamber of Deputies, Senate However, closer analysis of the challenges facing the new government shows that a genuine fresh start is highly unlikely. The defining policy decision will come when Rome puts forward an expansionary fiscal and economic policy for 2020, having already promised tax reductions, infrastructure investment and expanded welfare. Draft plans would see the 2020 budget deficit up to 2.3%, far from the 2.09% agreed with the Commission for 2019 and very close to the 2.4% that almost triggered the Excessive Deficit Procedure in summer. The commission will also regard Italian 1 growth projections with scepticism, given the failure to meet promises for 2019 and the likelihood of new burdens on business such as a minimum wage.
    [Show full text]