Jason Horowitz Now in Rome Up to His Usual Dirty Tricks

UPDATE: An absolutely damning piece on the M5S-League government in formation (Lib-Pop Politics: Italy’s New Government Is More Neoliberal Than Populist by Mario Pianta) was posted this morning by Yves Smith. Pianta's point is that M5S is rudderless while Salvini's League is on the ascent:

Current polls reflect this trend of a growing Lega and a stable Five Stars consensus; when Five Stars support weakens – as happened in the peripheries of Rome and Turin, run by weak Five Stars mayors – Salvini is set to grab a large part of their disappointed voters. Thus, the political outlook suggests Salvini as a likely winner of a real majority for the centre-right whenever new elections take place, giving him the upper hand in talks for the new government – the alternatives being an early vote in autumn or in May 2019 when they could be held together with the European elections.

That's something to think about: If Mattarella somehow tomahawks the nascent government, which is the drumbeat in the corporate press, and another round of elections is scheduled, Pianta argues that the League would be the clear winner with the center-right coalition likely able to form a government on its own.

The reason Pianta sees this as a problem is that the League is nothing more than Italian Trumpism, espousing tax cuts and bashing immigrants. Pianata concludes with this sobering assessment of the M5S-League program:

The asymmetry between a Lega with clear priorities – in terms of class and nation – and a Five Stars with its only concern to strike a deal, has produced a government programme that includes some general concerns of the Five Stars – on legality and minimum income – and most practical measures designed by the Lega – on taxes and migrants.

Demands for renegotiating European treaties and restoring national sovereignty in some areas are enough to open up a rhetorical confrontation with Brussels – and much attention from the media. But they have little concrete content.

The most important specific policy that will be introduced by the new government is the Italian version of the ‘flat tax’; firms and individuals will pay either 15 or 20% of income taxes, as opposed to the current 43% for the top income bracket.

It is clearly stated that no wealth tax will be introduced (Italy has often been criticized by the EU for having cancelled real estate taxes on home-owners). Tax controls on Italy’s large number of small firms and self-employed will be scaled down, basically legalising tax evasion for a large number of right-wing, medium and high-income voters.

For financial firms and banks no control or limit on their activities will be introduced. This will make Italy a neoliberal business paradise, competing with Ireland in the race to the bottom of business taxes in Europe, offering some room for the survival of Italy’s small businesses dramatically hit by a decade of crisis.

In this way, the transfer of income to the richest 20% of Italians will be huge, with the very rich benefiting the most. Berlusconi would have never been able with his past majorities to introduce such a pro-rich agenda.

Such measures are the easiest to implement, as they simply scale back state redistribution, leaving unequal outcomes of market processes untouched. More difficult is the implementation of the only ‘pro-poor’ measure long championed by the Five Stars: the so-called ‘citizen income’. In the programme this is reduced to an income support of €780 a month for a maximum of two years for unemployed Italians (no residents with foreign citizenship will obtain it) ready to accept any job offer; no figure for potential recipients or funding for implementing it is mentioned.

But the darkest success of the Lega in the government programme is the chapter on migrants, envisaging a stop to the flows of refugees, changes in European rules on asylum and free movement, and proposing the repatriation of the 500,000 immigrants with irregular status now present in Italy.

Combined with harsh measures on law and order, this policy caters to the ‘fear effect’ that is behind the growth of Lega’s support. In parallel the rise of the Five Stars was based on a ‘poverty effect’ – especially in the South (see here). The tragedy is that the poorest Italians have overwhelmingly voted for two political forces that are now creating the most pro-rich, pro-business government in Italy’s history. Even worse, Lib-pop politicscould be just the starter for an outright far-right political future.

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My suspicion when Jason Horowitz was made bureau chief of Rome by The New York Times, a reward for his work in slandering Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, is that the flagship of neoliberal hegemony was positioning a poison pen to take out the biggest internal threat to the European Union, Italy's Five Star Movement (M5S).

Horowitz faced a tough pull during the run-up to parliamentary elections because the political center has absolutely collapsed in Italy. While he churned away with his typical attacks, it was all just so much piss in the wind because it was clear that the insurgent parties, M5S and Northern League, were going to kick ass. And kick ass they did. In France, the NYT praised a party of neophytes, Macron's En Marche! And anything tech based usually garners accolades aplenty from the Gray Lady. But M5S does not support the Washington Consensus. So it must not be allowed to govern.

Horowitz earned his supper the other day when he published an innocuous two paragraphs in "Italy’s Populists Offer Giuseppe Conte for Prime Minister; N.Y.U. Claim in Question" casting doubt on the M5S-League candidate for prime minister, Giuseppe Conte:

[Giuseppe Conte] lists research at famous universities around the world, including Yale, the Sorbonne in France and New York University, where he said he “perfected and updated his studies” while staying at the college for at least a month every summer between 2008 and 2012.

Asked about Mr. Conte’s experience at N.Y.U., Michelle Tsai, a spokeswoman, said Monday, “A person by this name does not show up in any of our records as either a student or faculty member,” adding that it was possible he attended one or two-day programs for which the school does not keep records.

Clearly Washington's plan is to strangle the M5S-League government in the cradle. Bloomberg has at least a story a day which all but beg the Italian president Sergio Mattarella to take over. It's fascism without the slightest hint of a mass base.