'Italians first': how the populist right became Italy's dominant force

Six months after entering government for the first time, the League is drawing on formidable support from Italy’s ‘red belt’ – the swathe of the country that used to vote CommunistThe small Tuscan town of Cascina has never enjoyed the glamorous status of world-famous neighbours such as Siena or San Gimignano. But in its heyday it made some of the finest household furniture in Italy. For generations of newlyweds looking to furnish their new homes, a visit to Cascina was a rite of passage.Hard-working and close-knit, the town’s politics were firmly to the left. In a small patch of green near the handsome 16th-century clocktower, Communist mayors erected monuments to those who died fighting Mussolini and the Nazis. After the fall of the Berlin wall, the Italian Communist party gradually morphed into the centre-left Democrats, but the Cascinese, by and large, stayed loyal. Continue reading…
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