The EU’s move comes amid growing economic problems in Italy, but the country’s ascendant populists will flaunt Brussels’s decision as a victory.
- Rachel Donadio
- The Atlantic
Since it came to power in May, Italy’s coalition government has always been a marriage of convenience.
The Five Star Movement won the economically struggling Italian south with its campaign pledges of a universal basic income, and the right-wing League party won the economically prosperous north with its pledges of tax cuts.
That fundamental incoherence met its biggest test yet on Tuesday, when the European Union rejected Italy’s 2019 draft budget—an…