Will Brussels ever hear the cries for change?

ALL across Europe, mainstream political parties are being savaged by disillusioned, embittered voters demanding the right to be heard.

We have witnessed deeply disturbing surges of extremism in Austria, Poland, Greece and even Germany. Yesterday, it was Italy’s turn to reject the status quo, with more than 50 per cent of the vote in its general election going to three staunchly anti-establishment parties.

One, founded just nine years ago by a foul-mouthed, anarchic comedian and blogger, confusingly combines elements of Socialism, consumerism, and Green politics, with a dash of xenophobia. The other two align themselves unashamedly with the hard-Right.

There’s certainly no love lost between them and forming a new government will be far from straightforward. But they have one thing in common: They are all deeply, passionately Eurosceptic.

The liberal elite loves to dismiss such parties as ‘populist’ – their euphemism for ignorant.

But this kind of populism is in the ascendant. The people are rebelling against the effects on their society of mass immigration, chronically high unemployment and – crucially – the belief that their needs and concerns are being ignored by the ruling class.

Italians blame the euro, that ill-conceived, one-size-fits-all currency, for their economic crisis (a third of young people have no job). They also blame the EU for forcing them to take in 690,000 migrants since 2013.

This election result is a desperate cry for change. But is Brussels listening? Of course not.

Michel Barnier and the rest are far more interested in punishing the UK over Brexit than fixing the EU’s dangerous democratic deficit. And that may be their undoing. Their complacency and arrogance could cause the very foundations of the European project to crumble.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines populism as: ‘The policies or principles of political parties which seek to represent the interests of ordinary people’.

How tragic – but how typical – that Brussels thinks it’s something to be despised.