Politico: How Macron gave Italian populists a boost

During a 13-minute televised address to the nation on Monday night, the French president promised a minimum wage increase and tax cuts, including for low-income pensioners, in an attempt to appease the Yellow Jacket protesters. The announced measures could push France's budget-deficit-to-GDP ratio to 3.5 percent, well over the EU's 3 percent ceiling, according to an anonymous government source quoted by French daily Les Echos. [...]

"But but but, Macron said he's cutting taxes and increasing public spending ... does [Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre] Moscovici agree?" Claudio Borghi, a top League MP and chair of the lower house's budget committee, tweeted after Macron's announcement. [...]

However, it would be a lot more complicated for the Commission to press on with its plans to punish Rome for its extra spending while sparing France. Macron's potential EU rules breach will also prove harmful for the ongoing negotiations on a eurozone budget, which France has spearheaded.

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Social Europe: Italy Points The Way For Western Right-Wing Nationalists But Avoids EU Exit

Italy has become a leading example of a perilous western trend encompassing authoritarian, racist, and demagogic movements and attitudes. Developments are showing us what the anti-immigrant interior minister and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini ideologically hates most –the European Union, solidarity, anti-racism and anti-fascism. His aim is to dismantle any successful form of integration of migrants within the country (see here), while fighting internationally the EU’s normative framework in the hope of leading a Eurosceptic wave to victory in the 2019 European Parliament elections. [...]

Moscovici predictably compared Italy to an illiberal member state such as Hungary for their (apparently) similar xenophobic and anti-EU policies. All this is happening when the country’s focus should instead be on remembering the 80th anniversary of the promulgation of the infamous fascist anti-Semitic laws which discriminated against Italy’s Jewish community. Instead, racially-motivated abuses are on the rise. Italian President Sergio Mattarella expressed concern on Italy becoming a new “Far West”. This is a further lesson for US politics and society: the far right’s active involvement in democratic institutions does not always lead to its moderation or “normalization.” Even if the League has been in Silvio Berlusconi’s coalitions since the 1990s, this time it is virulently radicalizing the governmental agenda – making it more in line with fellow extremists in the US, Eastern Europe, and Russia. When they do not share the same ideas, Prime Minister Conte and the 5s seem mere puppets in Salvini’s hands. The other vice premier Luigi Di Maio, following a similar line, suggested migrants should be excluded from the proposed basic income.

Despite this abundant evidence, all deny any racism on the part of their government. Hardly surprising if we consider that this is a political elite set on changing the EU legislation with the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The paradox is that Orbán is opposing the very refugee redistribution quotas which would help Italy to deal with this humanitarian emergency. The truth is that without “easy targets” such as migrants, Islam, and blacks, the transatlantic far right would have only a few other minor mobilization flags. Immigrants, minorities and/or “foreign” traditions and cultures such as Islam represent the perfect enemies: they are “different” and challenge the “purity” of a given community. As non-white, and at times non-Christian, they cannot belong to any narrowly ethnically or culturally-defined Western society. In this sense, “Mexican” and “Muslim” are an easily interchangeable foe.

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Politico: Macron ♥ Vestager

There is  a stumbling bloc: She’s a member of the Liberals, languishing in fourth place behind two center-right and the main center-left political families in terms of size and support. The backing of a French president — even one whose approval ratings have gone through the floor — could provide a major boost to the Liberals, however. [...]

The current Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, announced last year that he would not seek a second mandate when his term ends in 2019. And Vestager, who has been dubbed the “most powerful woman in the EU,” would be in a good position to replace him, and is believed to be interested in the job. However, she would likely face competition from fellow Commissioners Jyrki Katainen and Pierre Moscovici as well as Michel Barnier, the EU’s lead Brexit negotiator. [...]

The liberal ALDE group to which Vestager belongs is the fourth force in the European Parliament and the party has eight EU leaders in its ranks, including Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Xavier Bettel from Luxembourg and now Andrej Babiš in the Czech Republic. If Macron joins the Liberals, they would leapfrog the Socialists to become the second largest group in the Council. [...]

According to EU lore, an aspiring president of the European Commission is said to need three qualities. First they must have been a member of the European Council — a head of state or government. Second, they must come from a country that is a member of the eurozone. Third, they must not have been around long enough to have made enemies in national capitals.

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Politico: 5 fronts in the coming eurozone battle

The possibility of the German liberal party FDP entering into a governing coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel means Macron’s plans to overhaul the eurozone have suffered a serious setback. The FDP has made it clear throughout the campaign that it would draw a “red line” in front of any plans to further integrate the eurozone, as France advocates. [...]

As always, Macron’s speech will be loaded with symbolism. It will take place at the Sorbonne, Paris’ oldest university and once the center of France’s intellectual life, in front of European students. The choice of the date was more controversial: The French president went against the advice of some in his entourage, who cautioned that this overt attempt to set part of the German political agenda might backfire if he falls way short of his ambitious goals.

The new French leader notably wants Europe’s economic and monetary union to have some form of common budget under the authority of a so-called eurozone finance minister. Although Merkel and even her hard-line Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble have greeted Macron’s general ideas with the appearance of polite interest, many German officials and parties oppose “fiscal transfers,” or the pooling of budgetary resources, even in a limited way.

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