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| Europe | ||
| Renzi resigns after losing reforms referendum | ||
| 2016-12-05 | ||
Wagner actually wrote an opera about this. Rienzi gets killed in the end. “Good luck to us all,” Renzi told reporters after saying he would tell a Cabinet meeting Monday afternoon he is resigning. Then he will tender his resignation to the Italian president after 2 1/2 years in office. Renzi conceded defeat after exit polls showed his proposal losing by a margin of about 60 percent to 40 percent in Sunday’s referendum. Renzi said the reforms would have cut Italy’s bureaucracy and made the country more competitive. His opponents were hoping to tap into the populist sentiment that has been gaining ground in Europe and the U.S.
The projected result was in line with what opinion polls had been indicating up until November 18, after which the media were banned from publishing survey results. President Sergio Mattarella will be charged with brokering the appointment of a new government to run Italy until the next general election, which has to take place by the spring of 2018. Opposition parties denounced the proposed amendments to the 68-year-old constitution as dangerous for democracy because they would have removed important checks and balances on executive power. Spearheaded by the populist Five Star Movement, the biggest rival to Renzi's Democratic party, the "No" campaign also capitalised on Renzi's declining popularity, a sluggish economy and the problems caused by tens of thousands of migrants arriving in Italy from Africa. Relief across Europe at Austrian far-right election defeat [IsraelTimes] Germany, La Belle France, Greece praise results as far-right party’s huge following on scocial media vents it anger. Austria’s voters have resoundingly rejected anti-immigration and eurosceptic Norbert Hofer’s bid to become the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... ’s first far-right president, a result greeted with relief from centrist politicians across the continent. Instead, Greens-backed independent candidate Alexander Van der Bellen swept 53.3 percent of Sunday’s vote against 46.7 percent for his rival from the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPOe), according to public television projections. "Today it is not an exaggeration if I say that today we see a red-white-red -- the flag of Austria -- as a signal of hope and change. A red-white-red signal from Austria to all the capitals of the European Union," Van der Bellen, 72, said in Vienna. The official result of what has been an ugly and polarising election in normally peaceable Austria, lasting 11 months, was not expected until Monday. But on Sunday an "incredibly sad" Hofer conceded defeat. "I congratulate Alexander Van der Bellen on his success and call on all Austrians to stick together and work together," Hofer said on Facebook. Establishment politicians in Austria and Europe had been nervous about a possible Hofer victory in a year that has seen two monumental political upsets already: Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... winning the US presidential election and Britannia deciding to leave the EU. It came shortly before exit polls suggested Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had lost a high-stakes constitutional referendum also held Sunday -- following a "No" campaign spearheaded by the populist Five Star Movement -- on which he has staked his job. Hofer, like Trump and "Brexit" proponents, had stoked concerns about immigration and globalisation, vowing to "get rid of the dusty establishment", seek closer ties with Russia and fight against "Brussels centralising power". Following the arrival of a record number of | ||
| Posted by:Steve White |