{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/9a03fe9e-1ff0-4dcc-b3f6-50bd1f016ea4/8d623449-43b0-424e-9dfd-6884ca2e97ef?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Italy vs France vs Brexit","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/6195701f2eacc3a36070252a/619570bccb3c660012e3d24c.jpg?height=200","description":"<p>We take the wider European view this week, catching up with the&nbsp;latest developments in Italy and France.&nbsp;A year on from the Italian&nbsp;elections, who is up and who is down in the coalition between the League&nbsp;and Five Star?&nbsp;What is China up to in Italy?&nbsp;Has Macron really got his&nbsp;mojo back?&nbsp;Plus we ask the big question: between chaos at Westminster,&nbsp;riots in Paris and rabble-rousing in Rome, whose democracy is in the&nbsp;biggest trouble?&nbsp;With Lucia Rubinelli and Chris Bickerton.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Talking Points:</strong></p><p><br></p><p>What’s going on in Italian politics?</p><ul><li>In regional elections, the Five Star’s votes collapsed. </li><li>The PD, the centre-left party, now has a new leader, but at the time of the regional elections it was in transition and still beat Five Star.</li><li>The League has doubled its share of votes to 33-34%. </li><li>The new leader of the PD got elected on a platform that would bring the party further to the left. But the Renzi faction is still quite powerful.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>What about France?</p><ul><li>There is something taking place in France that the national conversations don’t seem to have addressed.</li><li>France has been through a lot of turmoil during the Macron presidency. Yet the polling is remarkably unchanged. It’s a very divided electorate, but it’s divided in basically the same ways as it was a few years ago.</li><li>The gilets jaunes protest is targeted at Macron and the emblems of the state. </li></ul><p><br></p><p>Stepping back: In Italy, the anti-establishment parties are in power; in France, the centrist government is now facing radical street protests; and in Britain, you have Brexit. Which of these is the dominant crisis for this period in European politics?</p><ul><li>Brexit is a peculiarly institutional crisis. It’s not that it isn’t important, but in France, there is a more self-evidently class-war element. </li><li>The Italian case is substantially different than both: it’s not an institutional crisis, at least for now. And unlike France, there isn’t opposition to what the government is doing—in fact, there’s a lot of support. </li><li>In Italy, the main divide isn’t education or age, but region: it’s North vs. South.</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>Mentioned in this Episode:</strong></p><ul><li><a href=\"https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2019/139-adam-tooze-on-europe\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Tooze on Europe</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/19/italy-democrtic-emergency-migrants-racist-attacks\" target=\"_blank\">Roberto Saviano on Italy</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>Further Learning:</strong></p><ul><li><a href=\"https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2018/126-italy-vs-europe\" target=\"_blank\">Italy vs. Europe</a></li><li><a href=\"https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-italy-politics-pd/italys-centre-left-pd-party-votes-to-elect-new-leader-a-year-after-election-rout-idUKKCN1QK0DY\" target=\"_blank\">On the PD’s new leader</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/03/19/world/europe/ap-eu-italy-china.html\" target=\"_blank\">What is China up to in Southern Europe?</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: </strong><a href=\"http://lrb.co.uk/talking\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>lrb.co.uk/talking</strong></a></p><p><br></p>","author_name":"David Runciman and Catherine Carr"}