Not-so-local politics

Italy is holding elections today, Sunday, for both the European Parliament and local municipal contests, including a mayoral race here in Fidenza. And the anti-immigrant anxieties that are fueling the popularity of the nationalist right all across Europe seem to be at play in our little town, too.

Polls are open at all schools today, from 7 a.m. till 11 p.m.

Matteo Salvini, the head of the right-wing Lega (League), is the most prominent right-wing voice in Italy. He's reminiscent of Trump not only in the naked racism and authoritarianism of his rhetoric, but also in his disdain for actually governing. One newspaper calculated that despite being Italy's interior minister and co-head of the country's government, Salvini has spent all of 17 days so far this year actually at his desk. The rest of the time he's been touring around Italy, attending ribbon-cuttings, festivals, and political rallies, keeping his supporters energized and getting his face in as many Facebook posts and media stories as he can.

Salvini's Lega has united with several other rightist parties, including decrepit former prime minister Silvio "Bunga-Bunga" Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the far-right Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy), whose candidates in the European parliamentary elections include the presumptuously named Gaio Giulio Cesare Mussolini, a great-grandson of the fascist dictator. 

The same gang has a horse in the Fidenza race as well, a Salvini-ish-looking young man named Andrea Scarabelli. Like Salvini, he's allied with Forza Italia and the Fratelli. The alliance's office is just down the street from us.

I can't claim to have followed the local race very closely, because my ability to read newspaper Italian remains limited, and I haven't discussed it with any but my closest Italian friends because I just don't want to know if anyone I know is voting for these people.

There are three other candidates in the local race besides Scarabelli. The candidate from the Five Star Movement and another fellow who seems to be running a kind of "Third Way" campaign don't appear to have much support. The most serious contender is the current mayor, Andrea Masari, who is running for another term. He represents the liberal Partito Democratico, which is more social-democratic than the U.S. Democratic Party but seems to have similar difficulties convincing people upset about unemployment, austerity, and inequality that the party's liberalism toward immigrants isn't treachery and that it has something to offer the disgruntled masses beyond the same old same old.

I gather Masari and his team have done a good job in Fidenza, and he is running on a record of enhanced street lighting, better garbage recycling, and other civic improvements. In a move that seems a bit heavy-handed, just a few days ago--that is, a few days before the election--the city installed several dozen trees and shrubs along a block or so of our street, part of a drive to enhance the city's downtown, which is suffering from competition with a shopping mall on the outskirts. 

This is what most of our street looks like...

...but as of last week the next block has become a garden.

As I've mentioned before, Fidenza now has quite a few residents from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, and that's causing plenty of anxiety and resentment among some long-time Fidentini. People question whether these newcomers are really refugees or just economic migrants, competing for already scarce jobs and getting public benefits for food and housing. I saw one Facebook post a while back from a local worthy complaining that there were too many places in town selling "kebabs and shushi" instead of traditional Italian food. (Such concerns aren't data-driven: in fact there are only a couple of kebaberies, zero sushi restaurants, and at least ten Italian restaurants within a few blocks of our apartment in the city center.)

So even though Fidenza's mayor won't have the power to do much of anything about Italy or Europe's immigration policies, the issue appears to be a big part of  what's driving voters' choices, locally as well as in the European parliamentary contests.

By law Friday was the last day of political campaigning; in Italy everyone gets a day to cool off before it's time to vote. All four candidates held final rallies that evening. Masari's, in a local park, reportedly attracted some three hundred people. The other candidates held their events in the main piazza, where I happened upon them. Five Star had a table and some balloons but very few supporters, and I didn't spot the other minor candidate at all. Scarabelli had a bigger crowd, perhaps because his get-together was held outside a bar where a singer was crooning "Hotel California" and other oldies. I couldn't tell who was there because of political allegiance and who was just having a drink in the piazza. 

That's Scarabelli in the center, in the brown shirt, er, jacket. 

I was slightly scandalized to see the Lega candidate pouring prosecco for all comers. Is this how people get votes in Italy? But Romano tells me that wine and food were served at Masari's rally, too. This is just how it's done. How very American of me to be surprised by it.

Yesterday the local paper ran a summary of the candidates' remarks at their respective events. Scarabelli talked vaguely about "security" and how Fidenza needs to "improve" and thanked his supporters for having "the courage to show their faces," perhaps implying that the Salvini-ites aren't so popular around here. Masari, for his part, cited new jobs and new public investment his administration has already brought to Fidenza and pledged, "We will continue to work hard, without ever asking 'Where do you come from' but always 'What are you willing to do for our community?'"  

But the newspaper's editorial on "Why it's important to vote" hints at the deeper issue. It warns of "an invasion from the South," claiming (without citing any sources) that Africa will have some four and a half billion inhabitants by the year 2100, while Europe will have only 700 million by then. It concludes, "These are the practical reasons that should inspire our vote." 

No wonder my fellow left-liberals are worried. We'll all be watching the election returns with hope and a lot of trepidation.