Italy’s yet more proof that Brussels only believes in democracy when it produces the ‘correct’ result

GIvEN the disdain for democracy that is regularly displayed by Europe’s political class, the deepening political crisis in Italy is all too predictable.

Yet again, we are seeing the pro-Brussels establishment showing that it will not tolerate any challenge to its project of political integration.

In the mindset of the governing elite, the European orthodoxy must prevail, even when it means riding roughshod over the wishes of voters.

That domineering mentality lies at the heart of the drama in Italy, the Eurozone’s thirdlargest economy, where a coalition with widespread public support has effectively been barred from office because of Eurosceptic views.

Thwarted

In the recent Italian election, the two most successful parties were the hard-Right League and the maverick Left-leaning Five Star movement.

One might not like all their policies — I don’t — but they undoubtedly won the election. Both campaigned strongly against Brussels diktats on immigration and budgets.

But their attempt to form a Government was thwarted this week when the country’s President, arch- Europhile Sergio Mattarella, vetoed the proposed appointment of the distinguished economist Paolo Savona as finance minister.

The justification was Mr Savona’s record of doubts about the euro which, it was claimed, ‘could provoke Italy’s exit from the EU’.

Denied presidential backing for a crucial position, the Five Star/League alliance had to abandon its plans for office.

An interim administration has been proposed under Carlo Cottarelli, a pro-EU economist and former IMF official, who is, of course, far more acceptable to Brussels.

This turn of events perfectly illustrates the disturbing reality of European politics, where adherence to the ruling dogma counts for far more than any mandate from the people.

In the mindset of the Eurocrats, democracy is acceptable as long as it produces the ‘correct’ result. The German EU Commissioner, Gunther Oettinger, yesterday suggested that the markets would soon be sending Italy a message about the consequences of voting for ‘populists’.

We have seen such statements and attitudes time and again in the history of the EU.

Progressive opinion might be celebrating the outcome of last weekend’s abortion referendum in Ireland, but it was a different story in the previous decade.

Then the Irish people twice voted against EU treaties: in 2001 against the Nice Treaty (which allowed the expansion of the EU to the east) and in 2008 against the Lisbon Treaty (which gave stronger powers to the European parliament).

The pro-EU establishment refused to accept these results, forcing the Irish people to vote again so they would come up with the right answers.

That process was at work in Greece during their debt crisis in 2015, when the Athens government was forced to backtrack on economic plans that had the strong support of the electorate, which had rejected the savage austerity proposed by the EU.

Similarly in Britain, the proEU brigade has continually agitated against Brexit, urging that the result of the EU referendum should be ignored, or reversed in a second vote.

The conflict between democracy and the EU is inevitable because the European project is based on the erosion of national sovereignty. Lacking popular support, the work of building the desired political union can proceed only by bullying and deception.

Pro-EU ideologues continually taint their opponents with the word ‘populism’ — a term they use as a form of abuse meaning ignorance.

I have been sceptical about European political integration all my political career. I believe in democratic national independence rather than governance by an unaccountable bureaucracy.

In the early Nineties, as Chancellor, I spent almost a year helping secure Britain’s opt-out from the single currency during the Maastricht negotiations, because I recognised that the euro was not an economic initiative but a political vehicle to drive European integration.

My belief in self-rule rather than political union also led me to vote Leave in 2016.

During that referendum, proEU campaigners regularly dismissed Brexiteers as alarmists for claiming that Brussels was becoming ever more authoritarian and interventionist.

If there is one good thing to come out of the Italian crisis, it is that Brexiteers’ charges have been justified and, once more, the EU has been exposed as being in conflict with democracy.

Anything that threatens the creed of political union must be crushed. Again, that is something that the pro-EU lobby brazenly ignores.

As they persist in peddling Project Fear, they continue to indulge in endless scare stories about job losses and trade problems, while becoming hysterically indignant about the supposed ‘lies’ of Leavers.

But the Europhiles are guilty of a far bigger lie. They consistently refuse to admit that ‘ever closer union’, the guiding principle of Brussels, entails the destruction of nationhood and self-determination.

Disastrous

They talk grandly of the ‘ national interest’ but ultimately, under EU rule, there will be no nations, only a new country called Europe.

Italy was a founder member of the Common Market and used to be one of the most pro- Brussels countries in Europe. It is the only place where I ever witnessed a public demonstration in favour of the single currency, long before the euro was created.

But voters have become disillusioned with Brussels, especially over the insistence on open borders — Italy having had to bear the brunt of migrant traffic across the Mediterranean — and the disastrous impact of the euro, which has brought falling living standards, soaring unemployment and mountainous debt.

This has been a tragedy for a country for which I have great affection. It has talented politicians and a host of brilliant civil servants, their expertise epitomised by figures such as Mario Draghi, now head of the European Central Bank.

But I recognise that sometimes in Italy too much faith is put in technocrats. This is partly a reaction against political failure — Italy has had 65 governments since World War II — but it can be excessive.

Mockery

During the Brexit referendum I heard Mario Monti, an economist who served as prime minister of Italy from 2011 to 2013 despite never having been an elected politician, ask: ‘Surely people prefer to be ruled by experts?’ I could hardly believe my ears.

It was the same devotion to technocrats that led to this week’s appointment of Carlo Cottarelli and to the eager embrace of the euro in 1999.

The 81 year old Eurosceptic, Paolo Savona, seems to have been refused office because he once described Italy’s decision to join the single currency as ‘a historic error’. He was absolutely right and his is a phrase I have used myself.

Brussels refuses to accept that the euro has been a disaster, not just for Italy but for much of Europe, creating division, debt and dole queues, as well as obliterating democracy.

What makes it even worse is that Italy should not have been allowed to join the single currency in the first place. Under EU rules, national debt should be no more than 60 per cent of GDP in any member state, yet in Italy the figure passed 100 per cent, and is now around 130 per cent.

Driven by its obsession with political unification, the EU flouted its own rules in another episode of the long, unedifying tale of ‘Brussels creep’.

This alone makes a mockery of the EU’s shrill demands during the Brexit negotiations for Britain to abide by every letter of every regulation.

Brussels is happy to tear up the rule book when it suits — just as it is willing to push democracy aside. Ultimately, I do not believe it will win.