Topic > The Eurozone crisis and immigrants

Since the last presidential elections in France, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right populist party Front National, managed to participate in the final vote even if she failed to take power . And in Italy, even if the Rome mayor Virginia Raggi's bribery scandal has been exposed for its extent and high veracity, the M5S (5 Star Movement, populist party of which she is a member) would receive 29% in the next elections political elections in September, followed by 13.2% of the Northern League and 11.8% of Forza Italia. (Demopolis, national research institute) The two largest European nations, besides Germany, are falling into the hands of neo-nationalists, and this could be not only a disaster for the European Union, but a major setback of democracy in both the nations, and also, Europe. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The political nature of the two nations varies. There is Italy, which has gone through constant struggles between the traditional left and right; from Mussolini's children to the children of left-wing partisans. And as far as France is concerned, from de Gaulle's followers to traditional communists, anarchists and the children of the '68 revolution, there have been clashes between conservatives and left-wing progressives. However, the Eurozone crisis has significantly changed the game. After the right-wing regime of Chirac and Sarkozy, former French prime ministers, and Berlusconi, former Italian prime minister and leader of Forza Italia, in the 2000s, centrist, so-called reformist parties took power after 2011-2012 under the name of “escape from the economic crisis”. But they are in decline, and neo-nationalists are emerging with the support of young people, the rather traditional nationalist parties -Lega Nord, Forza Italia- have gained more support, and new emerging organizations -M5S, Casapound Italia and Front National- have appeared like the next parties in power. Their success is based on the failure of centre-left administrations and the surrounding problems in the EU. The reformists' reform was quite identical to that requested by Angela Merkel, as part of the pro-EU agenda. "The priority is to really change the relationship between Europe and its citizens. If we don't change, the risk is that Europe becomes responsible [in the eyes of citizens] for every problem of this continent" (Matteo Renzi, CNBC, 2016) . The labor law, which was one of the main reforms proposed by Matteo Renzi, [former prime minister from 2014 to 2016, leader of the Democratic Party], aimed to liquidate hiring and firing. This resulted not only in large-scale strikes by left-wing organizations and large trade unions such as the CGIL (Italian General Confederation of Labor), but also in the increase of "cooperative" workers (irregular workers). Furthermore, François Hollande's reforms were similar to those of Renzi, which placed their main objective in cutting public budgets on welfare and "unnecessary" government organization and in providing subsidies to businesses to reinvigorate the economy, such as the Renzi's 2017 French public spending cut. 50 billion euros and an increase of 30 billion euros for business subsidies. Even under pro-EU regimes, France and Italy have welcomed refugees from the war in Syria and steady immigrants from North Africa. Combined with the Eurozone crisis, immigrants have become a fragile but obvious target for the voice of conservatives, or at least nationalists. These organizations have increased their power by promoting an emotional sense that the "French" and "Italians" believe they have been disadvantaged by immigrants and refugees and by emphasizing immediate action.