QResear.ch

#17414039 at 2022-08-19 05:08:33 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #21342: Tick Tock Edition

Italian FM accuses Moscow of election meddling

Luigi Di Maio pointed at former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev's use of social meDia

Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio has accused Russia of attempting to meddle in its upcoming September 25 snap elections, after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on EU citizens to vote out "moronic" politicians.

On Thursday, Di Maio slammed what he called the "interference of the Russian government in the Italian elections," describing it as "truly worrying." He said Medvedev had given a "clear instruction on how to vote" and called on Italian political forces to "Distance themselves from Russian propaganda."

The foreign minister's statement came hours after Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia's Security Council, published a post on his Telegram channel calling on the people of the bloc to make their Dissatisfaction with their "moronic" leaders known in the voting booth.

Citing unspecified polls, Medvedev said EU residents "have not lost common sense" and "more than half" of them are against breaking off ties with Russia. Europeans want normal relations, energy in their homes, markets for their products, successful trade and tourists in museums and cafes, he argued.

Medvedev also called on EU citizenry to punish and "call to account" their politicians for their "obvious stupiDity." He added that Europeans do not want to be asked to pay out of their own pockets to punish Russia, which "hasn't harmed any EU citizen in any way with its operation in Ukraine."

"Take action, European neighbors! Don't keep silent!" the former president urged, concluDing the post with a warning that "in the winter, it's much warmer and comfortable in Russia's company."

Di Maio assured Italians that the government in Rome is working to "Diversify the sources of our gas supplies" to become less dependent on Russia, which he said was "funDing the bloody war in Ukraine" with Italian money.

https://www.rt.com/news/561116-italian-foreign-minister-russia-election-meddling/

#16813713 at 2022-07-26 00:27:14 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #21198: WTF Happened To The Dough!? Edition

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/italian-lawmakers-creating-new-faction-amid-rift-over-arming

Italian lawmakers creating new faction amid rift over arming Kiev

Supporters of Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, who used to chair the ruling Five Star Movement (M5S) have started collecting signatures in both houses of Parliament on Tuesday, Italian broadcaster RaiNews24 reported.

The supporters of the country's top Diplomat are gathering signatures in a bid to establish more blocs in parliament amid Disagreements over further arms supplies to Kiev.

Establishing a new group in parliament requires the consent of at least 20 lawmakers in the lower house and at least 10 lawmakers in the upper house.

Di Maio's supporters may be able to create such groups in both houses, meaning the minister and his close associates would de facto leave the M5S.

The parties involved in the matter are planning on calling their new group "Insieme per il futuro", which means "Together for the Future" in Italian, local newspaper Il Foglio reported.

MeDia reported on Sunday that the M5S appeared to be split over whether to continue senDing weaponry to Ukraine, with the Italian upper house heaDing into a shutdown this week.

The parliament was leaning toward voting on an M5S resolution, proposed by leader Giuseppe Conte on Tuesday that recommended enDing Rome's arms deliveries to Kiev to avert any damage that could be done to the prospect of peace.

The proposal put Conte on a collision course with Di Maio, who accused his own party on Sunday of immaturity and undermining national security, La Repubblica daily said.

The criticism reportedly provoked a response from M5S vice-presidents Riccardo RicciarDi and Michele Gubitosa, who hinted at their desire that Di Maio leaves the party.

Throughout the last two days, there have been several meetings between the representatives of all parties in Rome in a bid to reach a consensus on a parliamentary resolution regarDing Ukraine.

Parliament had adopted in March a resolution that granted Prime Minister Mario Draghi the authority to provide comprehensive support to Ukraine, which includes senDing arms to Kiev.

Draghi, alongside the leaders of France and Germany, headed to Kiev by train overnight Wednesday, seeking to voice their support for Ukraine.

The three leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and reaffirmed their support for Kiev.

#16773906 at 2022-07-21 13:09:43 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #21158 NIGHT SHIFT BAKER OFF edition

>>16773891
>>16773897
continued
Mattarella rejected that offer and asked Draghi to return to Parliament to brief lawmakers on the situation. The premier Did so on Wednesday, appealing to party leaders to listen to the calls for unity from orDinary Italians.
"You don't have to give the answer to me. You have to give it to all Italians," he told lawmakers.
While the next steps were unclear, Mattarella seemed likely to Dissolve Parliament after a period of consultations, paving the way for an election as soon as late September or early October. The legislature's current five-year term is due to expire in 2023.
Mattarella planned to meet with the presidents of the upper and lower chambers of Parliament later Thursday, his office said. The announcement cited the article in the Italian Constitution that says the president can Dissolve Parliament.
Opinion polls have inDicated the center-left Democratic Party and the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, which had remained in the opposition, are neck-and-neck.
Democrat leader Enrico Letta said Parliament had betrayed Italy.
"Let Italians show at the ballot that they are smarter than their representatives," he tweeted.
The Brothers of Italy has long been allied with the center-right Forza Italia of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi and the League of Matteo Salvini, suggesting that a center-right alliance would likely prevail in any election and could propel Brothers' leader Giorgia Meloni to become Italy's first female premier.
Meloni, who has been gunning for an early election since before the crisis erupted, was triumphant.
"The will of the people is expressed in one way: by voting. Let's give hope and strength back to Italy," she said.
Some commentators noted that Draghi's government, which has been among Europe's strongest supporters of Ukraine, collapsed in large part thanks to political leaders who previously had ties with Russian President VlaDimir Putin.
Berlusconi has vacationed with Putin and considered him a friend; Salvini opposed EU sanctions against Russia after its 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula; and then there's 5-Star leader Giuseppe Conte's opposition to Italian military aid to Ukraine.
After 5-Star senators boycotted last week's vote, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio accused Conte of giving Putin a gift.
end

#16751123 at 2022-07-17 17:28:16 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #21129: Roger, Ball Edition

16 Jul, 2022 14:31
Italy may soon be unable to arm Ukraine - foreign minister
Luigi Di Maio has warned the crisis around PM Mario Draghi's government could see an end to support

Political turmoil in Italy could soon see Rome unable to continue supporting Ukraine with weapons deliveries, the country's foreign minister has warned. AccorDing to Luigi Di Maio, this would be the case should the incumbent government not survive a no-confidence vote next week.

In a phone interview with US meDia outlet Politico on Friday, Di Maio said that those in Italy who want the collapse of Prime Minister Mario Draghi's government are playing into the hands of the Kremlin.

"The Russians are right now celebrating having made another Western government fall," the minister argued.

Di Maio went on to express doubt as to whether Italy will be able to keep supplying arms to Ukraine under these circumstances, adDing that "it is one of the many serious problems."

The official explained that, should the government collapse, it would still remain in power for some time in a caretaker capacity. However, in this case, its powers would be reduced, meaning, among other things, that the government wouldn't be able to continue weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

"If the government falls on Wednesday, we won't have the power to sign any new energy contracts and this is serious because we are headed into winter," the minister added.

AccorDing to Di Maio, Italy could also end up without a 2023 budget as the document is normally passed by parliament between July and December. Should there be elections in September or October, however, it could take months before a new coalition government is formed, meaning that the budget would be postponed, the minister explained. He added that it took 100 days to form a government the last time.

On Thursday, the Five Star Movement, which is part of Prime Minister Draghi's coalition government, boycotted a no-confidence vote, with the premier offering to resign in response. However, Italy's President Sergio Mattarella refused to accept his resignation, with Draghi's government facing another no-confidence vote on Wednesday.

Di Maio, who had been one of the Five Star Movement's leaders but left the party last month over a row concerning arms deliveries to Ukraine, laid into his former allies, accusing them of "helping Putin's propaganda and autocracy over democracy."

The foreign minister hailed Prime Minister Draghi as one of the staunchest opponents of the Kremlin in the West, who advocated strong sanctions and the freezing of Russia's foreign reserves following the start of Russia's offensive against Ukraine in late February.

The Five Star Movement has attempted to weaken the incumbent Italian government on several occasions over the past few months already, the official claimed. He specifically mentioned the party's opposition to an increase in Italy's defense spenDing to meet the NATO target, as well as a resolution in parliament against NATO and Italy's support for Ukraine.

Di Maio, however, said at the same time that a lot of other political forces and labor unions in Italy understood the importance of having a fully functioning government, meaning that Draghi hopefully could stay in power after all.

(good excuse to stop funDing Ukraine, and the minister talked to Politico)

https://www.rt.com/news/559105-italy-political-crisis-ukraine-weapons-deliveries/

#16733929 at 2022-07-14 23:46:06 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #21107: Praying for Don Jr, Ivanka and Eric edition. F

>>16733806
Hold the celebration for a bit:

Italy's President Mattarella rejects Prime Minister Draghi's resignation
By Livia Borghese and Sharon Braithwaite, CNN
Updated 5:15 PM ET, Thu July 14, 2022
Draghi resigned despite winning a confidence vote in the Italian parliament earlier on Thursday.

Rome (CNN)Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Thursday that he would resign, after the 5-Star movement the largest party in the country's coalition government withdrew its support in a parliamentary confidence vote.
Draghi's measures a package designed to tackle Italy's cost-of-living crisis passed by 172 to 39. However, the 5-Star boycott leaves the government at real risk of collapse and could lead to an early election.
After winning the vote but losing 5-Star's support, Draghi said in a statement: "I want to announce that this evening I will present my resignation to the President of the Republic."

"Today's votes in Parliament are very significant from a political point of view. The majority of national unity that has supported this government since its creation is no longer there," he added.

He had previously said that he would not lead a government that Did not include 5-Star.

However, Italy's President, Sergio Mattarella, has rejected Draghi's resignation, instead asking Draghi to address the parliament in order to assess the political situation, the Italian Presidency said in a statement.
"The President of the Republic Did not accept the resignation and invited the Prime Minister to appear before Parliament to make communications, so that an assessment of the situation that has arisen as a result of the outcome of the session held today in the Senate of the Republic could be carried out in its proper forum," the statement said.

Several Italian political parties supported Mattarella's decision.
"Italy, in this Difficult moment, cannot do without Draghi," Renato Brunetta, the minister for public administration from the Go Italy party, said in a Facebook post.
Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio described the decision of his former party, 5-Star movement, as "a clear act of irresponsibility, thus condemning the country to the abyss." Di Maio left the party in June creating a new party called Together for the future.
In a statement, Di Maio's party supported the president's decision and called Draghi a "precious and fundamental" figure.
"We are working to ensure that a solid majority in support of this government emerges in the parliament on Wednesday," it said.
But Giorgia Meloni, the Leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy, the only opposition party, called for "immeDiate elections."
"This nation is in a storm," Meloni said, listing all the Difficulties on the international and national level, from the war in Ukraine to the rising energy prices.
The populist 5-Star movement had objected to Draghi's cost-of-living package on the grounds it Didn't go far enough, after threatening to withdraw its support for a long time.
A major sticking point was also the financing of a garbage incinerator in Rome, which angered the 5-Star movement.
"We are opposed to this decree in the term of method and substance, in particular regarDing the incinerator. It's madness," said Maria Domenica Castellone, leader of the 5-Star movement in the senate, during a debate on Thursday.

Draghi was appointed Prime Minister if Italy in 2021 to help the country recover from the Covid-19 crisis. He was seen as a safe pair of hands that would be able to responsibly use the European Union's Covid recovery funds. Draghi had previously served as President of the European Central Bank from 2011 to 2019.
Upon taking the job, he appointed a cabinet comprising of people from a wide range of Italy's political parties.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/europe/italy-government-collapse-july-intl/index.html

Also re: rejection of resignation: https://www.npr.org/2022/07/14/1111541333/italy-mario-draghi-resignation

#16484557 at 2022-06-21 20:48:45 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #20855: HAPPY DARK TO LIGHT DAY!!! Edition

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/italian-lawmakers-creating-new-faction-amid-rift-over-arming

Italian lawmakers creating new faction amid rift over arming Kiev

Supporters of Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, who used to chair the ruling Five Star Movement (M5S) have started collecting signatures in both houses of Parliament on Tuesday, Italian broadcaster RaiNews24 reported.

The supporters of the country's top Diplomat are gathering signatures in a bid to establish more blocs in parliament amid Disagreements over further arms supplies to Kiev.

Establishing a new group in parliament requires the consent of at least 20 lawmakers in the lower house and at least 10 lawmakers in the upper house.

Di Maio's supporters may be able to create such groups in both houses, meaning the minister and his close associates would de facto leave the M5S.

The parties involved in the matter are planning on calling their new group "Insieme per il futuro", which means "Together for the Future" in Italian, local newspaper Il Foglio reported.

MeDia reported on Sunday that the M5S appeared to be split over whether to continue senDing weaponry to Ukraine, with the Italian upper house heaDing into a shutdown this week.

The parliament was leaning toward voting on an M5S resolution, proposed by leader Giuseppe Conte on Tuesday that recommended enDing Rome's arms deliveries to Kiev to avert any damage that could be done to the prospect of peace.

The proposal put Conte on a collision course with Di Maio, who accused his own party on Sunday of immaturity and undermining national security, La Repubblica daily said.

The criticism reportedly provoked a response from M5S vice-presidents Riccardo RicciarDi and Michele Gubitosa, who hinted at their desire that Di Maio leaves the party.

Throughout the last two days, there have been several meetings between the representatives of all parties in Rome in a bid to reach a consensus on a parliamentary resolution regarDing Ukraine.

Parliament had adopted in March a resolution that granted Prime Minister Mario Draghi the authority to provide comprehensive support to Ukraine, which includes senDing arms to Kiev.

Draghi, alongside the leaders of France and Germany, headed to Kiev by train overnight Wednesday, seeking to voice their support for Ukraine.

The three leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and reaffirmed their support for Kiev.

#16347432 at 2022-05-26 22:30:53 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #20680: What is the CIA Project DeepDream? Edition

26 May, 2022 19:08

Moscow casts doubt on rumored Ukraine peace plan

The Italian proposal was never shared with Russia and cannot be serious, judging by meDia reports, Lavrov says
Russia doesn't believe that a Ukraine peace proposal, which the Italian government reportedly shared with Kiev and Western allies, could be a viable solution to the ongoing crisis, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said in an interview with RT Arabic.

The document does not appear to be the potential breakthrough that some Italian officials claim it to be, Lavrov said. Italian Foreign Minister "Luigi Di Maio has been active in the meDia promoting the Italian four-point initiative. But we only read about it," The foreign minister explained, referring to the fact that Italy apparently wouldn't officially share its idea with Russia.

If judged by what the meDia said about the proposal, itmakes Moscow "pity the lack of comprehension by its authorof what is going on and their lack of knowledge of the subject and the history of the issue," Russia's top Diplomat said.

The most glaring part is that the Italian proposal reportedly envisions the future of Crimea and Donbass as autonomous parts of Ukraine, he said. Russia reabsorbed Crimea in 2014, after the region's population voted in a referendum for it to happen. Moscow recognized the People's Donetsk and Lugansk republics as independent states days before launching its offensive in Ukraine.

"A serious politician that wants results as opposed to self-promotion before the voters simply cannot propose such things," Lavrov told RT.

The Diplomat reiterated that Russia used force against Ukraine because Kiev broke its written promises to reintegrate the Donbass republics as autonomous regions. Instead, two subsequent Ukrainian governments simply ignored rebel leaders while driving breakaway republics increasingly away with a trade blockade and Discriminatory policies, Lavrov said.

"[Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky spits on Ukraine's international obligations as well as on its constitution, which guarantees the rights of the Russian-speaking population,"Lavrov said.

He was referring to Ukrainian laws and regulations, which pushed the Russian language out of many spheres of public life in Ukraine, like the meDia, entertainment and education.

Donbass regions are predominantly Russian speaking. They rebelled against post-coup authorities in Kiev, partially because virtually the first move that they took was to strip the right of the regions to use Russian as a second official language.

Lavrov said that amid the Russian action in Ukraine, its military Discovered Kiev's plans to launch a major offensive against the breakaway regions, which was supposed to start in early March.

"I have no doubt that if this plan worked, the entire West would have turned a blind eye to any violations [by Kiev] the way they ignored its total Disregard for any agreements over the previous five years," he said.

https://www.rt.com/russia/556140-lavrov-italian-peace-proposal/

#16302179 at 2022-05-19 03:46:22 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #20622: George Bush's FREUDIAN SLIP Edition

Italian AF IAM3174 A-319 returning to Rome FM Luigi Di Maio left JFK after the UN meeting

NATO: Di Maio meets ?avu?o?lu in New York

Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on Wednesday met his Turkish counterpart Mevl?t ?avu?o?lu in New York with Ukraine and Turkey's opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO high on the agenda.
Premier Mario Draghi told Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Malin in Rome earlier that Italy fully backed the two countries' bid to join the alliance, while Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan reiterated Ankara's opposition over Sweden and Finland's hosting members of the PKK, the KurDistan Workers' Party, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization. New NATO members must be approved unanimously.
https://www.ansa.it/english/news/world/2022/05/18/nato-Di-Maio-meets-cavusoglu-in-new-york_868669aa-bea0-41dd-a7a4-ed9aaafe3ced.html

#16260312 at 2022-05-12 13:23:39 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #20568:

'''Europe-Med.

Sergey Lavrov went to Tashkent after stopping at Muscat, Oman-trace is 22 hours old
Russian AF RSD008 Ilyushin Il-96 on descent for Tashkent
SAM911USAF C-40B (shows as 'no callsign' at the left of the panel) left Shannon, Ireland and went to Stansted and is now heaDing back to JBA-it was at Shannon since 0510 however it's data does not reflect that now as it shows it only stopping there and heaDing to Tel Aviv againthis is false as it was at Shannon for Mario Draghi's security appartus AC fuel stop on 0509and meeting and then it moved to Stansted someitme yesterday after I posted it was still on the ground
'''Sneaky basturds have removed the AC being at Shannon for several days and are trying to make it look like it was only there for a fuel stop after departing Aqaba , Jordan on Monday-the data now shows that habbening yesteday-it Did not

RAF RRR7242 RC-135 Rivet Joint crossing Romanian coast heaDing in to Black Sea
Hungarian AF HUAF589 Falcon 7x (this one of two VIP FAlcon transports for them other is #607) sw from Kecskemet AB
Hungarian AF HUAF 226 A-319 ws from Kecskemet AB
Busy AC already today with stop at Poznan (30 minutes) and Krakow fly over to the east of Krakow-Pobiednik Airport then to Kecskemet
Belgian AF BAF87 Falcon 7x (same here two of these other one is OO-LUM see right below)east from Pourdes-Pyrenees Airprot ground stop of 90 minutes-inbound fronm Brussels Int'l earlier
Belgian AF BAF84 Falcon 7x sw from Vilnius, Lithuania after a stop of 25 hours
Italian AF IAM314 Falcon 900 nw from Rome-most likely Italian FM Luigi Di Maio heaDing to Lubeck-it's also reported that human POS Ukrainian FM Dmytro Kuleba wil also be in attendance
G7 foreign ministers meet to Discuss Ukraine war, impacts
The meeting at the Baltic Sea resort of Weissenhaus, located northeast of Hamburg, takes place amid tight security, with about 3,500 police officers deployed at the event site.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/g7-foreign-ministers-meet-Discuss-ukraine-war-impacts-84664769
Paki AF BJ428 GL5T departed Luton Airport-London se after leaving JBA yesterday
REDEYE6 USAF E-8C Joint Stars trackin n and ne ot Warsaw
French AF CTM0006 Falcon 900 FM Jean Yves le Drian leaving Lubeck-there is a week long G7 FM meeting here that started on May 11th

#16080338 at 2022-04-15 11:41:23 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #20340: Good Friday Edition

15 Apr, 2022 10:45

Italy rejects ruble payment for Russian gas

The Italian Foreign Ministry says giving in to Moscow's "blackmail" would violate EU sanctions


Russia's demand for ruble payments for natural gas cannot be fulfilled, accorDing to Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, who says doing so would breach EU sanctions.

"We cannot pay in rubles; Russia introduced a double billing scheme from euro to rubles, this is impossible as it would mean bypassing sanctions against the [Russian] Central Bank," Di Maio said in an interview with Italy's RaDio 24.

AccorDing to him, Russia has imposed an embargo against itself "from a technical point of view."

Di Maio also said the Italian government is currently working on new channels for supplies of natural gas, adDing that Prime Minister Mario Draghi had already visited Algeria, and was planning to negotiate on extra supplies with Angola and Congo in the near future.

"I am convinced that Italy should not tolerate any form of blackmail. We need to Diversify the supplies, we haven't done it yet, but we have to," he said.

In March, Russian President VlaDimir Putin announced that the "hostile countries" which imposed sanctions on Moscow must now pay for Russian natural gas in rubles only.

The demand received a negative response from most of the EU. However, some nations, incluDing Hungary and Slovakia, said they were willing to accept this method of settlement. The Kremlin also inDicated that in the future, all Russian commoDities will have to be paid for in rubles.

https://www.rt.com/business/553916-italy-rejects-ruble-russia-gas/

#15720618 at 2022-02-25 17:42:01 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #19878: Ukraine, North Korea, Iran, Beijing, Jerusalem Cartel Edition

Council of Europe votes to suspend Russia

Italy's FM said it was a "necessary measure in light of Russia's unacceptable military aggression against Ukraine"

The Council of Europe approved a motion on Friday to suspend Russia's rights of representaion in the institution, which was formed in the aftermath of World War II to protect human rights and the rule of law across the continent.

"The decision adopted today means that the Russian Federation remains a member of the Council of Europe and party to the relevant Council of Europe conventions, incluDing the European Convention on Human Rights," the organization said in a statement.

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio welcomed the move, saying that his country "considers this to be a necessary measure in light of Russia's unacceptable military aggression against Ukraine, which constitutes a serious violation of international law."

The decision follows Russia's massive military assault against Ukraine, which the Kremlin said was launched in support of separatist leaders who called on Moscow for support.

Earlier on Friday, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that the Council would be considering Russia's membership of the body.

Following the decision, VlaDimir Dzhabarov, First Deputy Chairman of Russia's Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, demanded the Council of Europe return the annual fee paid by Moscow to the Strasbourg-based institution.

"Dear Council of Europe, if I remember correctly, contributions were paid at the beginning of the year. So, be kind, show decency and return the Russian contribution for the current year. Everything is fair!!!" the senator wrote on his Telegram channel. The figure is understood to be ?32.5 million.

Moscow launched a heavy military assault against Ukraine on Thursday - just days after recognizing the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk breakaway republics in the Donbass.

The recognition was in response to Ukraine's alleged failure to fulfill its obligations under the Minsk agreements struck, which were in 2014 and 2015 to resolve the conflict between separatists and the Ukrainian government.

https://www.rt.com/russia/550640-russia-council-of-europe-suspension/

#13999320 at 2021-06-27 19:58:21 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17717: The 'Naker Whack A Mole' Edition

US VATICAN RELATIONS "RESET" IS THE NEWS NOW

The Epoch Times
Vatican Foreign Minister: Church Has No Positive Contribution …
The Vatican announced this week, that U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will be meeting with Pope Francis, along with Archbishop Gallagher and other …
22 mins ago https://www.theepochtimes.com/vatican-foreign-minister-to-epoch-times-church-has-no-positive-contribution-to-make-in-hong-kong_3875850.html

Today News Africa
US Discusses worsening humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia's …
The United States and the Vatican on Sunday Discussed the deteriorating … the Discussions took place when Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with the …
2 hours ago https://todaynewsafrica.com/u-s-Discusses-worsening-humanitarian-crisis-in-ethiopias-tigray-region-with-vatican/

Effingham RaDio
Biden Admin Reaches Out To Vatican
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to drop by the Vatican this Monday to meet with Pope Francis. Reuters reports that President Biden has plans to …
5 hours ago

WION
Blinken visit to pope will reset US-Vatican ties after Trump years
The last time a US secretary of state visited the Vatican, the Diplomatic sparks flew and Pope Francis declined to receive Mike Pompeo. When Antony Blinken …
6 hours ago

MSN
News analysis: Biden's top Diplomat to meet pope - and try to …
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken intends to speak to the pontiff about shared values and ideas - fighting climate change, people trafficking, violence and …
7 hours ago

Mirage News
United States and Holy See: Partners in Addressing Climate …
Secretary Antony J. Blinken will travel to Vatican City on June 28, where he will meet with Pope Francis and Archbishop Paul Gallagher to Discuss efforts to work …
7 hours ago

NewsNation Now
June 27: Report warned of damage before Florida builDing …
… Blinken continues trip to Germany, France, Italy, and Vatican City Secretary of … meeting senior Holy See officials in Vatican City; and joining foreign ministers …
9 hours ago

Texas News Today
Blinken's visit to the Pope resets US-Vatican relations after …
When Antony Blinken meets the Pope and the Vatican's top executives on Monday, the Secretary of State's new visit will lay a new foundation for the relationship …
9 hours ago

Inquirer.net
Blinken visit to Pope Fracnis will reset US-Vatican ties after …
When Antony Blinken meets the pope and top Vatican officials on Monday, the new secretary of state's visit will put relations between Washington and Holy See …
10 hours ago

Voice of America
Blinken in Italy on Sunday for Meetings with Top Leaders, Pope
Blinken and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio will co-chair a meeting of the … Also Monday, Blinken goes to Vatican City for meetings with Pope Francis and …
10 hours ago https://www.voanews.com/usa/us-politics/blinken-italy-sunday-meetings-top-leaders-pope

#13336401 at 2021-03-31 13:39:28 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #16895: The Border Crisis is Real Edition

Italy expels two Russian Diplomats

The Russian ambassador received a protest of the Italian government

ROME, March 31. /TASS/. Italy immeDiately expels two Russian Embassy employees, suspected of illegal actions, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said in a statement in his Facebook page Wednesday.

READ ALSO
Russian embassy confirms employee from military attache's office detained in Rome

"The Russian Ambassador, summoned to the foreign minister, received a protest of the Italian government. He was also informed about an immeDiate expulsion of two [embassy] employees, involved in a very serious affair. I thank our intelligence services and state agencies that work for the benefit of our country's security," the foreign minister said.

Earlier, the Italian Foreign Ministry announced that Russian Ambassador Sergei Razov was summoned after an Italian Navy captain and a Russian officer were apprehended during the exchange of confidential papers for monetary reward. The Russian Embassy confirmed that a military attache's office employee was apprehended.

The Italian authorities do not Disclose names or positions of the expelled Diplomats.
https://tass.com/world/1272463

#13227755 at 2021-03-16 01:04:42 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #16763: Courage Not Censorship Edition

US, Allies Oppose Syria Elections, Blame Assad for 10 Years of War

Top Diplomats of the United States, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom in a joint statement challenged the legitimacy of this year's proposed presidential election in Syria and said that it should not lead to any international normalisation with the country's authorities.

The statement from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab marks the 10th anniversary of the world's blooDiest ongoing conflict.

"The proposed Syrian Presidential election this year will neither be free nor fair, nor should it lead to any measure of international normalisation with the Syrian regime," the top Diplomats said on Monday.

Syria is set to hold the presidential election in spring, per its constitution. President Bashar Assad told Sputnik in October that it was "early" for him to talk about his potential canDidacy in the upcoming vote.

The Western Diplomats called for a political process with the participation of all Syrians, incluDing the Diaspora and the Displaced.

"Our nations commit to reinvigorating the pursuit of a peaceful solution which protects the rights and future prosperity of all Syrians, based on UN Security Council Resolution 2254," the Diplomats said. "Clear progress towards an inclusive political process and an end to the repression of the Syrian people is essential. We cannot allow this tragedy to last another decade."

The Diplomats also said Assad and his supporters "bear responsibility for the years of war and human suffering that followed."

They renewed calls for a nationwide ceasefire, unhindered aid access and an inclusive political process, promised support for efforts to investigate and prosecute crimes committed in Syria and warned Damascus against non-compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied accusations of using toxic substances and insists that it has been repelling an aggression of international terrorists exacerbated by foreign powers' military intervention.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202103161082353386-us-allies-oppose-syria-elections-blame-assad-for-10-years-of-war/

#13022101 at 2021-02-22 14:57:51 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #16585: Monday Morning Illumination Edition

Italian ambassador killed in Congo kidnap attempt

The Italian ambassador to Democratic Republic of Congo was killed in a botched kidnapping on Monday in an attack on a United Nations convoy in the east of the country.

Italy's Foreign Ministry confirmed in a statement that the Italian ambassador to Congo, Luca Attanasio, was killed.

The convoy was attacked near the town of Kanyamahoro at around 10:15 a.m. (0815 GMT) and was part of a kidnap attempt, the Virunga National Park told Reuters.

An Italian carabiniere officer also Died in the ambush, who was identified as Vittorio Iacovacci.

The two men were travelling in a car as part of a MONUSCO convoy - the UN mission for the stabilisation of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mr Attanasio, was evacuated after park rangers intervened, the park said. However, he was declared dead shortly afterwards.

Many armed groups operate in and around Virunga, which lies along Congo's borders with Rwanda and Uganda, and they have repeatedly attacked Virunga rangers.

Luigi Di Maio, Italy's minister for foreign affairs, expressed "immense sorrow" over the incident.

"The circumstances of this brutal attack are not yet known and no effort will be spared to shed light on what happened," Di Maio said, paying tribute to the victims as "two servants of the state".

Mr Attanasio was 43 and had represented Italy in Kinshasa since 2017. He joined the Diplomatic service in 2003 and served previously in Switzerland, Morocco and Nigeria.

Mr Di Maio was in Brussels for a Foreign Affairs Council meeting but was due to return to Italy early after news of the attack broke.

The DRC's army said its troops were searching the area for the assailants.

A vast country the size of continental western Europe, the DRC is grappling with numerous conflicts, especially in its remote, mineral-rich east.

Scores of militias roam the four eastern provinces, many of them a legacy of wars in the 1990s that sucked in countries around central-southern Africa and claimed millions of lives.

Monday's attack occurred north of Goma - a region that includes the UNESCO-listed Virunga National Park, which has also been troubled by violence.

The UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, said last week that more than 2,000 civilians were killed in North and South Kivu and Ituri last year.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/italian-ambassador-one-three-killed-110455094.html

#12981250 at 2021-02-18 15:49:47 (UTC+1)
#16543 See Jeffrey Epstein documents ordered destroyed Edition

Mario Draghi goes to Italy's bedside and promises raDical remeDies
1 Hour Ago
ITALY. Mario Draghi, who was sworn in on Saturday, February 13, 2021, after being designated by the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday, February 3, 2021, to form a new government, presented his program on Wednesday, February 17 before the Senate. He will appear before the Chamber of Deputies on Thursday, February 18.

Aged seventy-three, the successor of Giuseppe Conte, who resigned after being dropped by his coalition allies, has set himself two objectives. "The main duty to which we are all called, and I in the first place as President of the Council, is to fight by all means the pandemic and to save the lives of our citizens". He also commits himself to "carry out raDical reforms." He does not deprive himself of a historical reference to define the immensity and importance of his role: "Like the governments of the immeDiate post-war period, we have the responsibility to launch a new reconstruction (…) This is our mission as Italians: to leave a better and fairer country for our children and grandchildren."

The first in Europe to be confronted with Covid-19, Italy has recorded 2.73 million confirmed cases for 94,171 deaths accorDing to the CSSE of Johns Hopkins University. It is the eighth most affected country in the world by the pandemic and the third in Europe and the MeDiterranean behind France (3.54 million cases) and Spain (3.09 million) and ahead of Turkey (2.60 million). Its first major decision Sunday evening, February 14, 2021 was also, in view of the deteriorating health situation with the British variant, not to allow the reopening of ski resorts in areas classified in yellow (a dozen regions where the epidemic is least active) scheduled for Monday, February 15, 2021, so a few hours later. A ban extended until March 5, 2021.

A conDitional European envelope of 210 bn?
With a GDP in 2020 down 8.9% (and still down 2% at the end of January 2021 compared to December 2020), Italy urgently needs to turn its finances around. Rome is relying heavily on the planned ?210 billion windfall from the European Union. But to do so, it will have to present a detailed spenDing plan to the European Commission in Brussels at the end of April 2021, which will conDition the release of aid.
The new Prime Minister has decided to place Daniele Franco, number two at the Bank of Italy, in the post of Minister of the Economy to manage all this.

At the end of 2020, Italy's cumulative debt reached ?2,600 billion (158% of GDP). Only Greece (over 200% of GDP accorDing to the IMF) has a higher ratio among the 27 member states. It is one of the highest in the world.

The situation is at its worst for the third economy of the euro zone and the 59.64 million Italians. With the loss of 400,000 jobs in 2020 and an unemployment rate of 9% at the end of January 2021. It has been on the rise since December 2020 after four consecutive months of decline. A decline in trompe l'oeil accorDing to the National Institute of Statistics (Istat) which attributes it to the fact that many Italians were no longer looking for work due to the closure of many companies during the confinement.

Almost total political support from the parties
Mario Draghi enjoys the support of almost all of the major political parties from Luigi Di Maio (5 Star Movement - former anti-Systemic) promoted to Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the bubbling Matteo Salvini (far-right League) who brings one of his lieutenants, Giancarlo Giorgetti, into the Labor portfolio. Only one party was missing to achieve unanimity: Giogia Meloni's Italian Brothers (far right). He should therefore have no Difficulty in obtaining the confidence of both the Senate (Wednesday evening, February 17) and the Chamber of Deputies (Thursday, February 18).

The former president of the European Central Bank - nicknamed "Super Mario" after having brought the euro to the brink of collapse during the debt crisis in the zone in 2012 - will also have to tackle fundamental projects that have fallen behind, such as reforming the bureaucracy-ridden administration or launching the ecological transition. The priorities are "renewable energies, the fight against air and water pollution, high-speed trains, hydrogen production and Distribution, Digitization and 5G".
https://en.econostrum.info/Mario-Draghi-goes-to-Italy-s-bedside-and-promises-raDical-remeDies_a902.html

#12904842 at 2021-02-12 20:59:55 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #16472: The Senate Impeachment Op Is Failing Edition

Mario Draghi Officially Becomes Premier Of Italy, Names His Top Ministers

Update (3:00pm ET): As expected (see below), Mario Draghi has agreed to take over as Italy's next prime minister, naming his ministers as he prepares to head a new government that will prioritize the pandemic, a struggling economy and moving ahead with European integration.

The 73-year-old former ECB head will lead a new national unity government to replace Giuseppe Conte's centre-left coalition that collapsed one month ago, leaving the country rudderless in an unprecedented crisis. Draghi will return to the presidential palace at midday on Saturday to be formally sworn in.

After securing broad support from all the country's main parties except for the far-right Brothers of Italy, Draghi met with President Sergio Mattarella late on Friday to formally accept the appointment and told the head of state he was ready to form an administration.

Draghi then spoke only to list the names of his ministers, a mix of politicians and technocrats.

The senior deputy governor of Bank of Italy, Daniele Franco, was named as the new economy minister, while Roberto Speranza would stay on as health minister. AccorDing to Bloomberg, "Franco, Director-general at the central bank, will play a key role in administering Italy's 209 billion-euro share ($253 billion) of the EU's recovery package, and in introducing measures to help families and businesses cope with the recession prompted by the pandemic and lockdowns."

Luigi Di Maio would be kept as foreign minister, with the new administration set on carving out a bigger role for Italy. Bloomberg adds that Roberto Cingolani, an executive at Leonardo SpA, would head a new ministry for ecological transition. He will be responsible for managing spenDing on green projects under the European Union's recovery package.

Other ministers include Giancarlo Giorgetti, minister for economic development, who - as veteran senior lawmaker with the League of Matteo Salvini - has been pushing for the party to adopt a more pro-European stance. Draghi has already told lawmakers he will push for a common euro-area budget, and Italy has taken up the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 nations.

Draghi will be tasked with restoring the economy in a country where more than 93,000 people with coronavirus have Died since it became the first European country to face the full force of the pandemic one year ago, and the toll is still rising by the hundreds each day.

Last year's shutdown and waves of subsequent restrictions plunged the eurozone's third-largest economy into its worst recession since World War II, and more than 420,000 people have lost their jobs.`

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/italian-bond-yields-hit-record-low-draghi-set-become-new-pm-soon-today

Italy becomes a Dictatorship no elections needed

#12104672 at 2020-12-20 16:52:31 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #15454: Are you a Hypnotist? Edition

Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and Austria ban ALL flights from the UK while Germany also considers restrictions from midnight until Jan 6 after the Discovery of the mutant 'Super-Covid' strain that is 70% more infectious

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9072287/Netherlands-bans-flights-UK-January-1-Discovery-mutant-Super-Covid-strain.html

European countries incluDing Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium have banned flights carrying passengers from the UK after southern England was plunged into a Tier 4 lockdown in a bid to suppress a 'mutant' strain of coronavirus.

The Netherlands was the first country to announce a travel ban, which will remain in place until January 1, its government said in a statement early today.

The Dutch government added that it is monitoring developments and is considering adDitional measures regarDing other modes of transport.

Neighbouring Belgium also said it was suspenDing flight and train arrivals from Britain from midnight for 24 hours.

Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said his country would also take action, tweeting: 'As the Government we have the duty to protect Italians, for this reason, after having advised the English (sic) Government, with the health ministry we are signing the measure to suspend flights with Great Britain.'

Austria and the Czech Republic were also imposing new measures against UK flights with Prague announcing stricter quarantine rules with all people arriving in the country having spent at least 24 hours in UK territory required to self-isolate.

Meanwhile, Germany is also considering limiting flights from Britain, the dpa news agency reported on Sunday, with a high-ranking official telling the agency that restrictions on flights from the UK were a 'serious option'.

The German government, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, is in close contact with its European neighbours on the developing situation, dpa reported.

And Ireland is set to impose travel restrictions on flights and ferries from the UK to the Republic later today, to last for 48 hours.

Ministers expect other countries to impose travel bans on UK citizens to prevent the new strain from spreaDing.

The travel bans came into effect less than 24 hours after Boris Johnson last night claimed that the new strain of Covid-19 might be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than existing strains.

Which begs the question. Why Did it take so long to cut travel to and from Wuhan at the beginning of this plandemic??

#11625941 at 2020-11-13 14:53:41 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14843: Basham says incoming today Edition

>>11625786
>>11625698
>>11625818

merry christmas?
>Pope will have a terrible May!


Italy has reignited a Dispute with France over Mont Blanc border rights after French authorities imposed measures that encroached on Italian territory.

Luigi Di Maio, the Italian foreign minister, who in the past has stoked tensions with France over other issues, said he had written a formal letter of complaint to the French government via the Italian embassy in Paris expressing his "strong Disappointment" over the "interference" on the highest Alpine peak.

The Dispute began in October last year after local authorities in Chamonix, Les Houches and Saint-Gervais-les-Bains set up a natural protection zone in an area of more than 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) on Mont Blanc intended to prevent tourist overcrowDing, incluDing measures banning paragliDing and poorly equipped hikers.

However, the targeted area affects a zone on the Gigante glacier, which lies under the famous Rifugio Torino and was defined by a treaty signed in 1860 as being part of Italy. Rifugio Torino, popular with skiers and hikers, is reachable from Courmayeur by the Skyway, a cable car completed in 2015 that links the Italian town with Pointe Helbronner, a 3,462-metre mountain on the frontier between the two countries.

Di Maio was pushed to intervene after a deputy with the small far-right party Brothers of Italy raised questions in parliament over concerns that the French were trying to monopolise the holiday destination.
https://www.theguarDian.com/world/2020/oct/22/italy-reignites-mont-blanc-border-Dispute-with-france

#10917788 at 2020-10-04 17:25:48 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #13971: POTUS Stong Like Bull Edition

Allies & protesters rally in Italy as ex-Deputy PM Salvini faces trial over 'kidnapping' of over 130 migrants

Matteo Salvini, head of the rightwing Lega Nord party, appeared in court over a 2019 order to bar migrants from Disembarking onto Italy's shores. The hearing was accompanied by rallies both in support and against the politician.

People from both camps marched through Catania on Saturday, the second-largest city in Sicily, chanting slogans and carrying banners either supporting or opposing Salvini's cause. The rallies were held amid a heavy police presence as a preliminary hearing on Salvini's case was heard at the city's Palace of Justice.

Salvini, who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister until September 2019, was in court for the hearing on "aggravated kidnapping" charges brought against him. They relate to an incident last July when the right-wing politician denied a coastguard ship - that rescued 131 migrants, among them over a dozen unaccompanied minors - permission to dock in Sicily.

Protesters critical of his policies accuse him of violating human rights, one described Salvini's rhetoric to Ruptly video agency as "mostly based on a preconception of racism and of social Differences." Meanwhile, people favoring Salvini, who chairs the anti-immigration Lega Nord party, insisted he Did nothing wrong.

"Is it even possible that after all these years we are still a colony? That we still have to follow these people who will Disembark in Sicily because they are convinced that a sandwich and a sausage are enough to get votes?" a pro-Salvini protester told Ruptly.

the Gregoretti, the vessel in question, was kept at sea for close to a week and was only allowed to Disembark after France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal agreed to take the migrants. If found guilty of the "kidnapping" charges, Salvini could face up to 15 years behind bars; he may also be prohibited from holDing a position of power for six years.

Salvini's defense insists he Did not act alone when ordering to close the Sicilian port, and that such a decision was made collectively by the government and that it was not illegal. Prosecutors believe that by denying the ship entry, Salvini broke international law that mandates the care of rescued people. A separate charge alleges that Salvini abused his power by depriving the migrants of their personal freedom.

It's now for the preliminary hearing judges to decide if the case is robust enough for a full trial to take place. The politician himself earlier told the meDia that "I will plead guilty to defenDing Italy and the Italians."

Further hearings have already been called for November and December. Judges have summoned as witnesses Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, and the former Infrastructure and Transport minister Danilo Toninelli. All three were part of the coalition government at that time with Salvini.

During his 14-month tenure as Interior Minister, Salvini advocated a hardline approach towards illegal immigration. Back in 2018, he declared Italian ports off-limits to migrant-filled rescue ships, sparking numerous standoffs between the vessels and Italian authorities.

https://www.rt.com/news/502487-salvini-trial-protests-catania/

#10896710 at 2020-10-03 04:05:04 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #13947: Quarantine Enhancement Edition

U.S. Department of State
This Week at State - October 2, 2020 In Review
Oct 2, 2020

Strengthening Historic Alliances, Advancing Religious Freedom
Secretary Pompeo is interviewed on Life, LIberty, & Levin on Fox News.
Secretary Pompeo commemorates Yom Kippur at the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, as Spokesperson Ortagus shares a message to Jewish people around the world.
Secretary Pompeo meets with Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis in Greece, addresses the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Secretary Pompeo delivers remarks at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See Symposium on Advancing and DefenDing Religious Freedom through Diplomacy.
Secretary Pompeo meets with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, reinforces the partnership between one of America's closest friends and allies.
Secretary Pompeo comments on President Trump's positive COVID test results before lanDing in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

3-minutes
https://youtu.be/-MQggtK7TmQ

#10853549 at 2020-09-30 12:10:48 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #13891: Hit Peices And The Purge Edition

Vatican official accuses Trump administration of using pope
That's why Francis won't meet Pompeo says Gallagher
Redazione ANSA
ROME
30 September 2020 13:47
(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 30 - A top Vatican official on Wednesday accused US President Donald Trump's administration of using Pope Francis with an event staged during US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Rome.
Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican's Secretary for Relations with States, answered in the affirmative when asked by ANSA if the US unilaterally organizing a symposium on religious freedom at its embassy to the Holy See amounted to exploitation of the pope in the final stages of the US presidential campaign.
"Yes, that is precisely why the pope will not meet American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo," Gallagher said.
During his visit, Pompeo is set to have talks with Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, but not Pope Francis.
Vatican sources had said it was felt a meeting with such a senior figure in Trump's administration would be inappropriate so close to the elections.
Pompeo and Parolin are expected to Discuss the Vatican's relations with China, after the former accused the Holy See of being too soft on Beijing and was critical of the likelihood that a historic agreement with the Chinese authorities on the nomination of bishops will be renewed.
Pompeo called on "every faith leader to find the courage to confront religious persecution against their own communities, and those of other faiths" during a speech in Rome on Wednesday.
(ANSA).
https://www.ansa.it/english/news/2020/09/30/vatican-official-accuses-trump-administration-of-using-pope_
shortened shit link yet it's there if you look

#10420697 at 2020-08-26 02:45:44 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #13336: Baker Appreciation Loaf Edition

'Cooperate with us': China's Xi bypasses Trump in appeal to US state and local officials

State and local officials in the United States can strengthen economic ties that offset the worsening rivalry between Washington and Beijing, accorDing to Chinese autocrat Xi Jinping. "We must actively cooperate with all countries, regions, and enterprises who are willing to cooperate with us, incluDing states, localities, and enterprises in the United States," Xi said, following an annual policy retreat. Those comments were released on the heels of President Trump's statement Sunday that he might "decouple" the American economy from China if he is reelected and trade negotiations with Beijing proceed unsatisfactorily. The trade war represents one front in broadening competition with the rising communist power, but Chinese officials have touted economic ties with Western countries to offset American warnings that such relationships bring national security vulnerabilities. "Some American politicians claim falsely that the U.S. has been ripped off by China, and that China's development is a gift from the U.S.," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in response to Trump's remarks. "Trying to solve domestic problems through decoupling is like looking for fish in trees or drinking poison to quench thirst. The country doing so will eventually harm the interests of its own businesses and people."

The comments from Trump and Xi came at the outset of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's trip to Europe this week, where he is on an apparent mission to blunt Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's recent efforts to "build out a coalition" of democratic nations to counter Chinese aggression. "We are resolutely opposed to any promotion of a new Cold War," the foreign minister said in Rome, in an implicit accusation against the U.S. "This is for one's self-interest. This is to hold all countries in the world hostage." Italy is one of the few major Western capitals to sign up for China's controversial Belt and Road Initiative, an overseas investment program that U.S. officials regard as a "predatory" lenDing scheme that Beijing uses to purchase geopolitical influence. Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio affirmed the country's interest in the Belt and Road Initiative but also rebuked Beijing's recent encroachment on Hong Kong, in a demonstration of how the mainland Chinese government's attempt to consolidate control of the former British colony has created a backlash in Europe. "I stressed that Italy and other EU member states together support Hong Kong's stability and prosperity on the basis of 'one country, two systems,'" Di Maio said. Xi, in his separate remarks, acknowledged that Beijing might pay an economic price overseas. "In the coming period, we will face more and more headwinds in the external environment, and we must be prepared to deal with a series of new risks and challenges," he said. "The dominance of the domestic market will become more apparent in the foreseeable future. We will insist on the strategic Direction of supply-side structural reform, adapting production, Distribution, circulation, and consumption mainly to domestic needs."
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/cooperate-with-us-chinas-xi-bypasses-trump-in-appeal-to-us-state-and-local-officials

China keen to work with 'US states, local councils, businesses' despite Washington's hostility, Xi Jinping says
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3098799/china-keen-work-us-states-local-councils-businesses-despite

#10394049 at 2020-08-23 19:18:07 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #13301: Dem Elite Coded Message Cracked ~ MAN YOUR PANIC STATIONS NAOW! Edition

Salvini Threatens Legal Action Against Italian Govt for AiDing Illegal Migration

Populist Italian Senator Matteo Salvini has announced he is considering launching a legal complaint against the leftist coalition government for aiDing illegal migration.

Salvini said on Friday that lawyers of his party, the League (Lega), are investigating filing charges of facilitating illegal migration against senior members of the coalition government of the Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party (PD).

The former Italian interior minister also gave praise to Giacomo Tranchida, the PD mayor of the city of Trapani in Sicily, who earlier this week banned the docking of the ship Aurelia which is being used to quarantine migrants in case they have the Chinese coronavirus, Il Giornale reports.

Italian Island Overwhelmed as Migrant Boats Arrive Every Hour on Average https://t.co/qXNMhvBz4E

- Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 27, 2020

Tranchida expressed annoyance that the vessel had been sent to the city when it was originally destined for a town in Calabria, noting that another quarantine vessel, the Azzura, was already off the coast of the town and has 700 migrants aboard.

"It is not yet understood, in the post-quarantine phase, where the government intends to transfer the migrants of the ship Azzura after negative results to the test," Tranchida said on Facebook, adDing that he thought the government was running out of ideas.

Ugo Cappellacci, a member of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and a former president of SarDinia, said he is also looking to pursue legal action against the leftist government.

Cappellacci said the coalition government had not done enough to stop the spread of coronavirus in SarDinia from illegal migrants complained of not having viral tests at airports.

Italian Senate Lifts Salvini Parliamentary Immunity over Alleged Migrant 'Kidnapping' https://t.co/O41ab6bO7c

- Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 1, 2020

He said he has instructed lawyers to pursue both criminal and civil charges, noting the potential economic harm from the consequences of the spread of the virus on the region's tourism industry.

Italy has seen a surge in new migrant arrivals in recent weeks, particularly in Sicily and the island of Lampedusa, which has been overwhelmed.

Earlier this week, Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio announced that Italy could not take in more illegal migrants and would be working to deport any and all illegals that come into the country.

Salvini Slams Italian Leftist Govt for Illegal Migrant Surge https://t.co/WJt4BA2W2j

- Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 28, 2020

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/08/23/salvini-threatens-legal-action-against-italian-govt-for-aiDing-illegal-migration/

#10150745 at 2020-08-01 18:12:12 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #12991: Parents and Staff Wake Up to Gestapo Style Social Control Edition

Estimated 11,000 Migrants Arrived in Italy in a Single Week

Italy has seen a surge in migrant arrivals in recent weeks, with as many as 11,000 arriving last week, half of them coming from Tunisia.

The Italian Interior Ministry released a statement this week saying: "Autonomous lanDings on the Italian coast have more than multiplied in a very short period of time."

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio went on to call for aid from the European Union, saying the bloc "must address this issue immeDiately" and work to reDistribute the incoming migrants. Di Maio also noted the health risks due to the potential spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, Le Figaro reports.

Of the 11,000 migrants to arrive in Italy last week, many came by small boat. Around half of them came from Tunisia, most of them Tunisian citizens.

Salvini Slams Italian Leftist Govt for Illegal Migrant Surge https://t.co/WJt4BA2W2j

- Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 28, 2020

For those who come from Tunisia, the Italian island of Lampedusa, the part of Italy closest to the North African coast, is often their target. On Tuesday night alone, around 300 migrants arrived on the island in 13 small boats.

The surge of new arrivals has led to intense overcrowDing at the Lampedusa migrant reception facility which is designed to hold just 95 migrants at a time and currently holds around 1,000.

In June, residents of Lampedusa held their own referendum and overwhelmingly voted to close the migrant reception centre with over 900 votes for the measure and just four voting against it.

"For 30 years, in the face of the continuous violation of the most essential rights for the population and for immigrants, Lampedusa has been used as a military management platform for migration," a local island committee said. It added: "All this with the complicity of local administrations and through a moral and economic blackmailing strategy, to the detriment of the local population."

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/08/01/estimated-11000-migrants-arrive-italy-single-week/

#8526843 at 2020-03-23 03:57:53 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #10917: The Truth is Coming Out Edition

Putin Flies Help to Virus-Stricken Italy, Exploiting EU Fumble


Doctors, supplies sent after phone call with Premier Conte. Italy is fertile ground for Russian Diplomatic offensive. As soon as VlaDimir Putin got off the phone with the desperate Italian prime minister, Russian aid was being loaded onto military planes, headed for the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

The consignment was given a high-profile reception by Giuseppe Conte's government, with Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio there to see the reinforcements land at a military airport south of Rome on Sunday night. As well as protective masks and coats, ventilators, swabs and testing equipment, there were doctors and Disinfection teams on board, accorDing to the Italian Foreign Ministry.

With Italy's economy collapsing and its hospitals buckling under an avalanche of new cases, the European Central Bank dramatically ramped up its bond-buying program last week and the European Union is considering unleashing its 410 billion-euro ($440 billion) bailout fund to help keep the country afloat. Yet the bloc has left itself vulnerable to a PR coup from Russia and China in a critical member state.

EU leaders have stirred up resentment in Italy by restricting exports of critical meDical supplies as they prepare their own health-care systems for an onslaught of infections. That opened the door for Putin and China's Xi Jinping. The Russian supplies were Dispatched bearing a sticker with a heart and the words "From Russia with Love," news wire Ansa reported. Putin's opportunistic Diplomacy follows a long courtship of officials in Rome, who've been among the strongest advocates of a rapprochement with Moscow within the EU and NATO.

Yet the humanitarian cargo is only one side of Putin's double game when it comes to Europe and its health-care crisis. AccorDing to an internal EU report, Russia is also responsible for an organized campaign spreaDing Disinformation about the coronavirus with the intention of undermining confidence in western leaders.

For any geopolitical rivals seeking to undermine EU unity, Italy is a weak link, since many of its voters blame the euro for decades of economic malaise and are inclined to back populist and euroskeptic parties.
https://www.bloomberg.com//news/articles/2020-03-23/putin-flies-help-to-virus-stricken-italy-exploiting-eu-fumble

#8394055 at 2020-03-12 23:18:01 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #10746: COVID-19 TP PSA Edition

>>8393983
For those of U that don't understand why Italy is being devastated economically ….Here's a clue…KEK ..There's a storm a coming in more then 1 Way…KEK

World News
March 23, 2019

Italy signs deals worth 2.5 billion euros with China

A Forgotten Italian Port Could Become a Chinese Gateway to Europe

TRIESTE, Italy - For centuries, this cosmopolitan port city at the northern tip of Italy's Adriatic coast acted as a geographic pivot point between empires. Then, for nearly 70 years, Trieste's geopolitical star Dimmed and its old world mishmash of central European cultures grew stale, like an old strudel in one of its elegant cafes.

Now, courtesy of a rising China, Trieste appears ready to return to the center of a realigning world.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/world/europe/italy-trieste-china-belt-road.html

Around 30 parallel deals were signed on the sidelines of the visit to Rome by Chinese President Xi Jinping, incluDing 10 with Italian companies and others with ministries and public boDies.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said the deals were worth an initial 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) but had a potential value of 20 billion.

Here are details of some of the accords.
CDP, BANK OF CHINA

Italy's state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) signed an agreement with Bank of China to let it sell "Panda" bonds - debt sold by foreign entities to investors in mainland China.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-china-deals-factbox/italy-signs-deals-worth-2-5-billion-euros-with-china-idUSKCN1R40KN

#8373546 at 2020-03-11 03:16:02 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #10720: Campaign End At Bernie's Edition

China to Provide Assistance to Italy, Ready to Send Experts to Fight COVID-19 - Minister

China will provide humanitarian assistance to Italy and is ready to send a team of specialists to assist the Italian side in combating the spread of the novel coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a telephone conversation with his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio.

"We will not forget the support Italy provided to China at a Difficult time for us during the epidemic. Now we are also ready to stand firmly next to the Italian people. Despite the fact that China itself has a great need for meDical supplies, we will overcome Difficulties and will provide Italy with humanitarian aid in the form of meDical masks and other necessary meDical supplies", Wang said.

"We will boost exports of necessary goods and equipment to Italy", he said.

Wang said that if the Italian side needed, China was ready to send a group of meDical experts to help combat the spread of the virus.

More than 100,000 people have already been infected with COVID-19 in the world, the majority have recovered, and about 4,000 have Died. The coronavirus outbreak was first registered in December 2019 in China's Wuhan. In Europe, the most coronavirus-affected country is Italy.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte introduced earlier tough measures, incluDing movement restriction due to an outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

More than 9,100 COVID-19 cases have been registered in Italy; 724 people have already recovered, 463 have Died.

https://sputniknews.com/asia/202003111078533035-china-to-provide-assistance-to-italy-ready-to-send-experts-to-fight-covid-19—minister/

#7926851 at 2020-01-27 04:01:11 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #10144: The Sky Fall Edition

''Italy's Salvini fails in bid to seize left's northern stronghold

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's right-wing leader Matteo Salvini failed in his effort to overturn decades of leftist rule in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna on Sunday in an election that brought huge relief to the embattled center-left. Pollster forecasts based on an ongoing count preDicted the incumbent PD governor, Stefano Bonaccini, had won between 51%-49% of the vote compared to 43%-45% for the canDidate backed by the League and its allies.

Salvini had campaigned relentlessly in the region since the start of the year, seeking a shock victory that he hoped would bring down the fragile national government, which includes the PD and is riven by internal strife. Although he fell short in Emilia-Romagna, Salvini took comfort from the fact that his rightist bloc had secured a resounDing victory in a separate regional election held on Sunday in the underdeveloped southern toe of Italy, Calabria.

But the main prize was undoubtedly Emilia-Romagna, one of Italy's wealthiest regions, which is home to the Ferrari sports car and Parmesan cheese, and has proved an impregnable leftist stronghold for generations. "Emilia-Romagna has sent a signal. Salvini knows how to talk about problems, but he doesn't know how to sort them out and the people have responded," said PD leader Nicola Zingaretti. Underscoring the enormous interest in the ballot, turnout hit 68%, some 30 points up on the last such election in 2014.

But while the PD dodged Disaster, there was less good news for its coalition partner, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, which looked on course to win barely 5% of the vote in Emilia-Romagna and little more than 6% in Calabria. The party emerged as Italy's largest group in 2018 national elections with 33% backing, but it has seen its support slide in recent months leaDing to a wave of defections amongst its lawmakers and the resignation of its leader Luigi Di Maio. Political analysts preDicted that Sunday's ballot-box setback would weaken the 5-Star's stanDing within the coalition and give the PD more power to Dictate its own policy priorities.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics/italys-salvini-fails-in-bid-to-seize-lefts-northern-stronghold-idUSKBN1ZQ02G?il=0

#7920404 at 2020-01-26 17:22:01 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #10136: Sunday Morning Narrative Swing In the Making Edition

Italians Head To Polls In Regional Vote That Could Topple The Government

Italians in Emiglia Romagna and Calabria are heaDing to the polls on Sunday to vote in critical local elections that could dramatically shift the balance of power in the Italian government, and possibly trigger the collapse of a fragile ruling coalition already showing signs of strain.

The canDidate of the League-led center-right coalition is expected to win hanDily in Calabria, a stronghold in the conservative south, but if the League canDidate manages to win the governorship in Emilia-Romagna, it would be a huge step for League leader Matteo Salvini as he plots his political comeback and seeks his revenge on his former partners, the Five Star Movement. For months, opinion polls have consistently shown that the far-right, anti-migrant League is the most popular political party in the country.

Readers outside Italy may or may not remember the circumstances surrounDing the collapse of the last Italian government over the summer, but in any case, here's a quick refresher. After weeks of intrigue, then-Five Star leader Luigi Di Maio outflanked League leader Matteo Salvini, his fellow co-deputy PM, and managed to form a new ruling coalition led by Five Star and the center-left Democratic Party, while banishing Salvini - whose decision to Dissolve the government to try and rid himself of his Five-Star partners backfired in a big way - to the opposition.

Unfortunately for Di Maio, since Five Star Movement's entire raison d'etre is based in the populist backlash to the technocratic political hacks who have been blamed for running Italy's economy into the ground, the deal with the PD was a political liability from the very start, and has proved unpopular among supporters of both parties.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/italians-head-polls-regional-vote-could-topple-government

#7846730 at 2020-01-18 17:11:18 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #10043: RR Took the Cover off the Lovers Edition

>>7846708

Long Gaps 3 and 4: European election prep: Czeck Republic, Hungary, England, Italy, Germany
05/23/18 to 06/02/18 and 06/04/18 to 06/09/18
11 Days and 6 Days

Speech
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/steve-bannon-says-vaffanculo-in-italy

Interview
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-44227238/steve-bannon-on-newsnight-talks-trump-racism-and-the-mueller-investigation

Speech / Interview
https://hungarytoday.hu/former-trump-adviser-steve-bannon-gives-talk-in-budapest-as-several-american-right-wingers-head-to-the-hungarian-capital/

https://www.channel4.com/news/steve-bannon-interview-on-europes-far-right-and-cambridge-analytica

Speech
https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-rushes-to-support-italys-collapsing-f-you-coalition

Interview
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-30/bannon-hails-german-populists-and-slams-merkel-s-incompetence

Interview (taped?)
https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2018/05/31/exp-gps-0603-bannon-on-rosenstein.cnn

Interview (taped?)
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/01/politics/steve-bannon/index.html

Interview
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-us-ambassador-to-germany-is-pushing-the-bannon-agenda-and-maybe-trumps-too

Interview
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/969516/Italian-elections-Steve-Bannon-EU-collapse-Luigi-Di-Maio-Five-Star-Movement-Lega

Monastery Press Release
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/monastery-will-mould-populists-of-future-tff5gfg9m

#7542290 at 2019-12-18 03:56:59 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #9648: Propaganda. GoFundMe Next? Edition

Notes/News

Italy: 3 MS5 lawmakers defect to Salvini's League party.

Three senators from the left-wing populist Five Star Movement (M5S) have left the party to join Salvini's increasingly popular League party.

Senators Ugo Grassi, Fra Francesco Urraro, and Stefano LuciDi have all announced that they would be leaving the Five Start Movement for Matteo Salvini's League, Il Giornale reports.

Grassi's decision was applauded by populist leader Matteo Salvini, who said: "We welcome Senator Grassi. Our doors are open for those who, with consistency, competence, and seriousness, have positive ideas for Italy and who are not under the thumb of the Democratic Party. We will work with Senator Grassi on reforms, efficiency of justice, and the revival of Italian universities."

Grassi said that teaming up with Salvini and the League provides a chance to pursue "targeted investments for the development of the South."

Senators Stefano LuciDi and Francesco Urraro announced their plans to leave the Five Star Movement for the League later the same day.

"I am honored to begin this political path," said LuciDi.

To this Salvini responded, "Today some Five Star senators joined, not because we offered or promised anyone but because they felt betrayed." The League leader also slammed M5S leader Luigi Di Maio and Beppo Grillo, the party's founder, for their inconsistencies and failure to stand up to the Democratic Party and globalist establishment.

Since the Five Star Movement captured nearly 33 percent of the vote in Italy's 2018 national elections, support for the left-leaning populist party has dropped to just 17.5 percent. Meanwhile, support for Salvini's League party has skyrocketed, jumping from 17.4 percent in 2018 to roughly 31.5 percent today.

If a center-right coalition government was formed today with Salvini's League, the national-conservative Brothers of Italy, and Forza Italia, it would garner nearly 49 percent of the national vote. The ruling MS5 and Democratic Party coalition enjoys slightly over 35 percent of the national vote, accorDing to the latest pollls.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/12/italy-3-ms5-lawmakers-defect-to-salvinis-league-party/

#7534688 at 2019-12-17 17:32:36 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #9638: Madcow PAGING..........Edition

Italy: 3 MS5 lawmakers defect to Salvini's League party

Three senators from the left-wing populist Five Star Movement (M5S) have left the party to join Salvini's increasingly popular League party.

Senators Ugo Grassi, Fra Francesco Urraro, and Stefano LuciDi have all announced that they would be leaving the Five Start Movement for Matteo Salvini's League, Il Giornale reports.

Grassi's decision was applauded by populist leader Matteo Salvini, who said: "We welcome Senator Grassi. Our doors are open for those who, with consistency, competence, and seriousness, have positive ideas for Italy and who are not under the thumb of the Democratic Party. We will work with Senator Grassi on reforms, efficiency of justice, and the revival of Italian universities."

Grassi said that teaming up with Salvini and the League provides a chance to pursue "targeted investments for the development of the South."

Senators Stefano LuciDi and Francesco Urraro announced their plans to leave the Five Star Movement for the League later the same day.

"I am honored to begin this political path," said LuciDi.

To this Salvini responded, "Today some Five Star senators joined, not because we offered or promised anyone but because they felt betrayed." The League leader also slammed M5S leader Luigi Di Maio and Beppo Grillo, the party's founder, for their inconsistencies and failure to stand up to the Democratic Party and globalist establishment.

Since the Five Star Movement captured nearly 33 percent of the vote in Italy's 2018 national elections, support for the left-leaning populist party has dropped to just 17.5 percent. Meanwhile, support for Salvini's League party has skyrocketed, jumping from 17.4 percent in 2018 to roughly 31.5 percent today.

If a center-right coalition government was formed today with Salvini's League, the national-conservative Brothers of Italy, and Forza Italia, it would garner nearly 49 percent of the national vote. The ruling MS5 and Democratic Party coalition enjoys slightly over 35 percent of the national vote, accorDing to the latest pollls.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/12/italy-3-ms5-lawmakers-defect-to-salvinis-league-party/

#7442831 at 2019-12-07 00:02:56 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #9519: Reasonable Ruth Rules Right Edition

SYRIA UPDATE

Lavrov: The need to eliminate terrorism in Idleb and settle crisis in Syria
Lavrov, during a joint news conference with his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio in Rome on Friday, said: "We reaffirmed our commitment to resolution no. 2254 on the settlement of the crisis in Syria and stressed the need to fight terrorism, especially in Idleb, where Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist organizations still control most of its areas."
He added: "The return of the Displaced and the reconstruction of areas devastated by terrorism have become our priorities."
On the settlement of the crisis in Libya, the Russian Foreign Minister stressed that there is no alternative to a peaceful settlement, stressing the necessity of organizing a comprehensive national Dialogue.
https://sana.sy/en/?p=179947

14 Russian Airstrikes Target Terrorists' Positions In Southern Idlib (Videos)
Warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out late on December 5 no less than 14 airstrikes on terrorists' positions in the southern Idlib countryside.
https://youtu.be/ViW2Wa4yhW8
https://youtu.be/925eXHOdSW8
https://southfront.org/14-russian-airstrikes-target-terrorists-positions-in-southern-idlib-videos/

Unknown Gunmen Attack U.S.-Occupied Omar Oils Fields In Eastern Syria - Reports
Early on December 6, unknown gunmen attacked the U.S.-occupied Omar oil fields in the southeastern countryside of Syria's Deir Ezzor, accorDing to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
The state-run agency's reporter in the eastern region said that the attack coincided with the arrival of U.S. military and logistic supplies to a base inside the fields.
"U.S. occupation forces responded with artillery strikes and fired illumination rounds," the reporter said.
The KurDish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) denied the SANA's report claiming that the explosions heard near the oil fields were a result of live fire drills between its units and the U.S.-led coalition.
https://southfront.org/unknown-gunmen-attack-u-s-occupied-omar-oils-fields-in-eastern-syria-reports/

Army fortifies new points on Hasaka-Aleppo international highway
Syrian Arab Army units on Friday expanded their deployment in the Syrian al-Jazira area, fortifying new points on the Hasaka-Aleppo international highway.
SANA's reporter in Hasaka said army units expanded their deployment in Hasaka's northwestern countryside, fortifying new points on the Hasaka-Aleppo international highway at Leylan crossroads west of Tal Tamer.
https://sana.sy/en/?p=179915

Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham Commanders Killed by American "Ninja" Bombs in Idleb
American "ninja" bombs have struck two Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham commanders in the town of Atmeh in northern Idleb on Dec. 3, 2019.
Images were Distributed of the remains of the bomb, which had blades that breached the roof of the vehicle carrying the commander, which killed him and the driver sitting beside him, in the second use of this type of weapon since 2017.
https://syrianobserver.com/EN/news/54737/hayat-tahrir-al-sham-commanders-killed-by-american-ninja-bombs-in-idleb.html

Three Attacks By Al-Qaeda, Turkish-Backed Militants Targets Syrian Troops Around Idlib
Al-Qaeda-affiliated factions and Turkish-backed groups carried out on December 6 three attacks on Syrian Arab Army (SAA) troops and positions around the Greater Idlib region.
The National Front for Liberation (NFL) announced that it had destroyed a truck of the SAA near the town of Jurin in northwest Hama with an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM).
https://southfront.org/three-attacks-by-al-qaeda-turkish-backed-militants-targets-syrian-troops-around-idlib/

Syrian War Report - December 6, 2019: Israeli Air Force Bombed 'Iranian Targets' Near Al-Bukamal
Image
https://southfront.org/syrian-war-report-december-6-2019-israeli-air-force-bombed-iranian-targets-at-al-bukamal/

#7205242 at 2019-07-26 20:45:03 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #9218: The VooDoo That They Do Edition

'Puberty Is Not a Disease': Italian Council Moves to Ban Gender-BenDing Drugs For Kids

The regional council of Friuli Venezia Giulia, an autonomous region in northeastern Italy, approved a motion calling on the national government to prohibit so-called puberty-blocking drugs used in so-called reassignment treatment for gender-confused children.

In a July 17 move by a center-right majority led by the League party, the Friuli Venezia Giulia regional council approved a motion calling on Italy's national government to prohibit the prescription of drugs that prevent normal sexual development of adolescents.

The League's leader is Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who is one of the three members in Italy's coalition government that includes Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio of the Five Star Party (M5S) and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. The leftist parties in the regional council, incluDing M5S, voted against the motion.

AccorDing to the council's motion, "puberty is not a Disease" and thus should not be prevented with surgery and meDications that can produce irreversible effects. It also noted the long-term negative effects of drugs containing triptorelin.

"There is no evidence, in fact," reads the motion, "on the effective full restoration of fertility in the case of withdrawal from treatment." It cites data circulated by the American College of PeDiatricians, which stated that as many as 98% of minors will outgrow their gender dysphoria (a feeling that one's biological sex does not accord with one's gender expression) after having passed through puberty naturally.

https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=60529

#7181194 at 2019-07-25 13:57:29 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #9188: Dead Man Walk'n Edition

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/puberty-is-not-a-Disease-italian-council-moves-to-ban-gender-benDing-drugs-for-kids

'Puberty is not a Disease': Italian council moves to ban gender-benDing drugs for kids

The regional council of Friuli Venezia Giulia, an autonomous region in northeastern Italy, approved a motion calling on the national government to prohibit so-called puberty-blocking drugs used in so-called reassignment treatment for gender-confused children.

In a July 17 move by a center-right majority led by the League party, the Friuli Venezia Giulia regional council approved a motion calling on Italy's national government to prohibit the prescription of drugs that prevent normal sexual development of adolescents.

The League's leader is Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who is one of the three members in Italy's coalition government that includes Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio of the Five Star Party (M5S) and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. The leftist parties in the regional council, incluDing M5S, voted against the motion.

AccorDing to the council's motion, "puberty is not a Disease" and thus should not be prevented with surgery and meDications that can produce irreversible effects. It also noted the long-term negative effects of drugs containing triptorelin.

"There is no evidence, in fact," reads the motion, "on the effective full restoration of fertility in the case of withdrawal from treatment." It cites data circulated by the American College of PeDiatricians, which stated that as many as 98% of minors will outgrow their gender dysphoria (a feeling that one's biological sex does not accord with one's gender expression) after having passed through puberty naturally.

"We express opposition to the use of this drug," said Mauro BorDin, accorDing to VoceControCorrente. BorDin, who represents the League on the council and was a signatory of the motion, went on to say there are not enough clinical stuDies, "especially regarDing the possible long-term negative effects and why blocking puberty pharmacologically could cause a misalignment in [adolescent] physical and cognitive development." He said puberty-blockers could even compromise those parts of the brain that contribute to the definition of sexual identity, which also involve both environmental and educational factors.

BorDin said the motion is not an "ideological position, but a proposal of common sense in the exclusive interest of the health of children throughout Italy." Critics have long warned against meDical interventions for persons experiencing gender dysphoria. For example, Dr. Michelle Cretella of the American College of PeDiatricians said in 2017, "Transgenderism is a psychological Disorder, not a biological one." She added, "Consequently, we expect transgenderism and its associated meDical procedures to increase as society increasingly promotes this lifestyle." RegarDing a move by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons to coin the term "gender confirmation surgery," she said, "Linguistic engineering precedes and accompanies social engineering." Cretella went on to say, "Transgender activist physicians realize that sex reassignment surgery is a misnomer. In other words, surgery cannot change a person's sex. By renaming sex reassignment surgery gender confirming surgery, they give the impression that they are affirming an inborn trait and further the innate immutable transgender myth."

#7099979 at 2019-07-19 19:57:25 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #9085: Prebake Ebake Edition

Globalists target Italy's Matteo Salvini for destruction

The Duran's Alex Christoforou and EDitor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris Discuss the latest "Russia meddling" globalist attack aimed at Itay's de facto leader Matteo Salvini.

Salvini is now flirting with the possibility of a snap election before voters as the scandal that has become known as Italy's version of "Russiagate" continues to make headlines across the main stream meDia.

Speculation that the government could collapse has intensified with Salvini in non-stop campaign mode, routinely criticizing his coalition ally in the populist, anti-establishment Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio.

Salvini is fighting tooth and nail against suggestions that his far-right League party tried to get covert Russian payments during talks in Moscow last year.

But the revelation by news website Buzzfeed of a conversation recorded in a Moscow hotel between one of Salvini's top lieutenants and three Russians Discussing covert payments has put him on the back foot.

The first reports of these meetings surfaced in the Italian press in February. But the scoop by online news website Buzzfeed - based on an auDio recorDing of the talks - pushed it back centre stage and was widely reported in Italy.

The deal under Discussion was to covertly Divert $65 million (58 million euros) to the League by means of Discounted Russian oil transactions through intermeDiaries.

Buzzfeed identified Gianluca Savoini of the League as one of three Italians talking to three Russians. It said the talks took place in October.

Former journalist Savoini, 56, is married to a Russian and is president of the Lombardy-Russia association. He is considered one of the League's main contacts with Russia.

"A hoax, a fraud, a piece of Dirt," Savoini told Italian daily La Repubblicca, describing the Buzzfeed story.

When the story broke on Wednesday, Salvini denied it. "Never taken a ruble, a euro, a dollar or a litre of vodka in financing from Russia," he said in a statement.

But he has never hidden his admiration for Russian President VlaDimir Putin, who visited Italy only last week. And during his visit, Putin referred to a cooperation agreement between his United Russia party and Salvini's League.

Salvini's says his support for Putin, his fight to overturn European sanctions imposed against Russia for their 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, comes "free". His position is a matter of conviction, he insists.

https://theduran.com/globalists-target-italys-matteo-salvini-for-destruction-video/

#6841457 at 2019-06-25 22:58:28 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8750: Adm Rogers has brass balls! Savior of the world! Edition

ECB To Italian Government: Your Gold Is Ours

As the squabbling over Italy's populist government's plans to blow out its budget deficit to finance an agenda of tax cuts and social spenDing (incluDing a 'citizen's income' that's essentially UBI-lite) crowded the headlines, the issue of who owns the 2,451 metric tons of gold reserves held by the Bank of Italy has been quietly ignored - at least, outside of Italy.

But that might be about to change.

On Tuesday, the ECB asked the League, the dominant party in Italy's ruling coalition, to remove a reference to the Bank of Italy holDing gold as an "exclusive title of deposit" accorDing to Bloomberg.

Translation? If Italy is not allowed to have title to Italian gold, then Italy's gold now belongs to the ECB.

Today's escalation over Italy's gold "title" comes two months after the WSJ reported that Italy's ruling populists pushed ahead with efforts to seize control of the central bank and its gold reserves. Complaining that hundreds of thousands of small inDividual investors lost billions of dollars after several Italian banks failed in recent years, the current Italian government depicted the central bank as a symbol of a technocratic elite aloof from the needs of orDinary Italians.

"We need a change of course at the Bank of Italy if we think about what happened in the last years," said Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the 5 Star Movement.

Shortly thereafter, 5 Star lawmakers asked parliament to pass two draft laws.

One law would instruct the central bank's owners, most of them private banks , to sell their shares to the Italian Treasury at prices from the 1930s.The other law would declare the Italian people to be the owners of the Bank of Italy's reserve of 2451.8 metric tons of gold, worth around $102 billion at current prices.

"The gold belongs to the Italians, not to the bankers," said Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy, a far-right opposition party that supports both bills. "We are ready to battle everywhere in Italy and to bring Italians to the streets if necessary."

So far there has been no fighting but if indeed Draghi just told Italy that its gold now belongs to the Frankfurt-based central bank we expect that to change (We Discussed the proposed laws in more detail here).

Meanwhile, yesterday Italian BTP yields tumbled to their lowest level in a year as investors breathed a sigh of relief following reports that the European Commission would hold off on kick-starting an "excessive debt proceeDing" - a process that would likely result in Italy becoming the first eurozone constituent to face a fine (potentially extenDing into the billions of euros) for violating the bloc's stringent fiscal rules.

AccorDing to reports, the EU was holDing off to give the Italian government more time to try and come up with a compromise. Meanwhile, both the League and the Five Star Movement have trudged ahead with a plan to have the Italian Treasury and Bank of Italy issue mini-BOTs - bonds that ostensibly would help the Italian government settle overdue payments, but which critics have denounced as a parallel currency. ECB President Mario Draghi denounced the plan as a step toward launching a parallel currency.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-25/ecb-italian-government-your-gold-ours-now

#6726223 at 2019-06-11 16:55:57 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8602: See You at the Cross Bar Motel Edition

Warning to EU: Farage teases he's 'very close' to reaching alliance to terrify Brussels

The Brexit Party was not the only Eurosceptic party to enjoy big successes in the European elections, with Italy's Five Star Movement (MFS), led by Luigi Di Maio, also coming to the fore. There has been uncertainty as to whether the two forces will merge together to join the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), the Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament. But an agreement between the Brexit Party and the M5S is "very close", accorDing to Italian news agency Adnkronos.



https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1139061/nigel-farage-eu-news-brexit-party-eu-alliance-italy-five-star-movement

#6681005 at 2019-06-05 23:37:47 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8543 Evening Q Bread

Italy risks Disciplinary action for violating EU debt rules

Italy could face Disciplinary action over its failure to respect European Union spenDing rules.

The European Commission found that Italy's public debt stood at more than 130% of GDP in 2018 - far above the 60% limit which EU rules require.

It warned that a "snowball effect" was likely to see the situation worsen in 2019 and 2020, as it recommended legal action.

But Italy's populist leaders remained defiant following the warning.

EU commissioner for the euro and social Dialogue, ValDis Dombrovskis, said the Italian economy showed "the damage recent policy choices are doing."
He called on the country's leaders to take action to reduce debt, saying there needed to be a "renewed reform effort, not spenDing more where there is no fiscal space to do so".

Without taking action, the Disciplinary procedure - which has not yet been opened - could ultimately result in an unprecedented fine of more than ?3bn (£2.6bn).

But Italy's government showed little immeDiate interest in a policy change.

"I'm sure that in Brussels they will respect our will," said Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. "The only way to cut the debt created in the past is to cut taxes."

"Cuts, sanctions and austerity have only produced more debt, poverty, precariousness and unemployment. We need to do the opposite," he added.

Fellow Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said politicians would "go to Europe and Discuss [the issue] responsibly".

But, he added: "It's tough, when you see that every day they find another reason to say bad things about Italy and this government."

The warning on Wednesday is the latest to be made by the European Commission over Italy's spenDing.

The country narrowly averted the same procedure at the last minute in December by lowering an initial target for the budget deficit this year.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48536954

#6673758 at 2019-06-05 01:39:00 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8534: Cryin Chuck and The Washed Up Psycho Edition

Italian President May Dissolve Parliament As Early As July

As the populist coalition between Matteo Salvini's Lega and the Five Star Movement continues to face rising tensions, Italian meDia claim that President Sergio Mattarella could Dissolve the parliament as early as next month. Following the European elections, the two coalition parties have seen a reversal in voting share with Lega becoming the dominant party in Italy, while the Five Star Movement has tumbled in the polls.

AccorDing to a report from newspaper Il Giornale, some have preDicted that increased tensions between the two parties could mean that the government has around one month or so before facing collapse and crisis. If the coalition breaks apart it will be the role of President Matarella to attempt to form an alternative majority but will likely be forced to Dissolve the parliament if none can be found and hold elections in September. A major source of Disagreement between Salvini's Lega and the Five Star Movement (M5S) has been Salvini's push to introduce tax cuts and a flat tax, using increased deficit spenDing to cover short term costs. The plan is also likely to see the Italian government once again come into conflict with the European Union Commission who threatened to begin a sanctions process against Italy over a previous budget that saw a level of deficit spenDing the EU Did not agree with.

Last week, the EU Commission demanded information from the government on the state of deficit spenDing, once again highlighting the possibility of reopening the sanctions process. Between both Salvini and M5S leader Luigi Di Maio, who both serve as co-deputy Prime Minister, has been Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte who has been forced to reiterate his position as leader of the government as many, incluDing Italian meDia, see Salvini as becoming Prime Minister in all but name following the EU election.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/06/04/italian-president-may-Dissolve-parliament-as-early-as-july/

#6660667 at 2019-06-03 14:28:00 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8517: Advancing Into The Week Edition

Italy's Premier Plans Ultimatum to Quarreling Coalition Partners
By John Follain and Jerrold Colten
June 3, 2019, 3:16 AM CDT

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is preparing an "ultimatum" to his two quarreling deputy premiers, as the newly strengthened League party ramps up the pressure for action on its terms, or a snap vote.

Conte has grown frustrated with the war of words between the deputies who call the shots in the populist coalition – Matteo Salvini of the League and Luigi Di Maio of the Five Star Movement – and he plans to say Monday that while he's willing to stay on, he won't continue in a government "at death's door," daily la Repubblica reported.


With Italy awaiting a response from the European Union on its recent clarifications about its public finances, Conte plans to say at a 6:15 p.m. Monday news conference in Rome that he needs room for negotiating with Brussels, Repubblica said. A spokesman for Conte Didn't respond to a request for comment on the "ultimatum" plan.

Sworn in a year ago, the government has been buffeted by rising tensions between Salvini and Di Maio. Salvini, energized by the rightist League soaring to become Italy's top political force after European parliamentary elections May 26, told party lawmakers last week he wants to keep the coalition going, but is ready to see it collapse if he can't push through key policies like his flat-tax plan.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-03/italy-s-premier-plans-ultimatum-to-quarreling-coalition-partners

#6628733 at 2019-05-30 18:10:08 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8476: Graduation Speech On The 50 Yard Line Edition

Five Star Movement Leader Offers Resignation After Disastrous Election Result

The Five Star Movement's (M5S) Luigi Di Maio has offered his resignation as party leader following a Disastrous performance in the European Parliament elections over the weekend.

Di Maio announced that he would put his leadership on the line, offering to let members of the movement vote on whether or not he should remain as the head of M5S, Italian newspaper Il Giornale reports.

"In the latest forty-eight hours [people] have said everything against me. Declarations of all kinds from all over. I have also read your many messages. Some of encouragement, others that have made me think. And I thank you for this. Life, for each of us, it is made up of rights and duties," Di Maio wrote on the movement's blog.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has also given an ultimatum to populist interior minister Matteo Salvini, whose League party pulled off a historic election win in the European elections. "I will ask Salvini for full public trust. Otherwise, I will tell him that I am not available to stay," Conte said.

The ultimatum comes after Salvini said he would be pushing to advance several policies which the M5S had previously rejected incluDing the introduction of a flat tax and more autonomy for several northern regions.

"If you want to bring the country into a crash with Europe, assume the responsibilities. He will do it, I will not do it," Conte said remarking on Salvini's plan to rebuke the European Union and push for larger deficit spenDing to pay for tax cuts.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/05/30/five-star-movement-leader-offers-resignation-after-Disastrous-election-result/

#6488639 at 2019-05-13 17:49:15 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8297: Your Most Trusted Source of Information Edition

Italian Prime Minister Fears Salvini Plotting To Topple Government

When the League and the Five Star Movement finally agreed to form a government last year after months of faltering talks, many doubted that the shotgun marriage of two parties from opposite ends of the political spectrum - with little in common aside from being nominally 'anti-establishment' - would long endure.

And to be sure, the fact that their union has even lasted this long is a testament to the frustration that many Italians felt toward the center-left and center-right parties in the aftermath of buffoonish antics of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's longest serving post-war ruler, and the ineffectual reign of Matteo Renzi.

But Matteo Salvini's confrontational approach to the Italian migrant crisis - incluDing his controversial decisions to turn away boats loaded with refugees - has caused support for his right-wing, anti-immigrant League party to surge. At the same time, M5s, led by Salvini's deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio, has grown increasingly antagonistic, most recently supporting the ouster of a key Salvini advisor over allegations of corruption.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-13/italian-prime-minister-fears-salvini-plotting-topple-government

#6439016 at 2019-05-07 19:22:00 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8234: Be Best Edition

Crime Down 15 Percent Under Salvini Interior Ministry

Following criticism from his coalition partners, the Five Star Movement, that he should focus less on migrants and more on the Mafia, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini revealed that crime has reduced by 15 per cent between 2018 and 2019.

The populist Lega leader, who heads the police as Interior Minister, revealed that accorDing to police statistics, crime had decreased by 15 per cent with murders down by 12.2 per cent and attempted murders down 16.2 per cent, Il Giornale reports.

Other crimes were down as well, come even more drastically such as sexual violence which had seen a 32.1 decrease and robberies which were down 20.9 per cent.

The comments from Salvini came in reaction to a statement by Five Star Leader and co-deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio who said, "Rather than terrifying migrants or visiting walls, the owner of the Interior Ministry should take care of fighting the mafia."

The statement over visiting walls was likely a swipe at Salvini's recent trip to Hungary where he once again met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to speak about cooperation within the European Parliament and the European Union as a whole.

"I've done more committees for order and security in Naples than in all the other Italian cities," Salvini said and then went on to refer to the notorious Neapolitan Camorra Mafia saying, "It is clear that the Camorra is an ugly beast and it will take time to defeat it."

Salvini said he was also still committed to the arrests of "mafia, murderers, drug dealers and criminals in general," but noted that it would require more police officers and that to tackle the issues would require thousands of new uniformed personnel.

While crime is falling overall, the number of crimes committed by migrants has reached such a level where one in three suspects in various criminal cases come from migrant backgrounds.

On the issue of halting migration, many sources, incluDing the European Union border agency Frontex, have admitted that the anti-mass migration policies of Salvini have reduced new lanDings over 90 percent and as a result have also led to a sharp decline in the number of drowning deaths in the MeDiterranean sea.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/05/07/crime-down-15-percent-under-salvini-interior-ministry/#

#6414340 at 2019-05-04 20:59:35 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8202: We Love Our Great Firefighters Edition

>>6414243

Missing Mifsud was hidden in Rome

Exclusive - The Maltese professor involved in the Russiagate investigation secretly lived in a flat in Rome for seven months. The rent was paid by Link Campus, the Five Star Movement's favourite university

The Russiagate investigation has ended, but Russiagate is not over. AccorDing to the conclusions of the investigation led by special prosecutor Robert Mueller, there was no collusion between Russia and Donald Trump. But many aspects of the story remain unclear. Mueller's report has not been published yet (it should be today), and it could reveal more details about Russia's interference in the US presidential campaign. Trump has instead called for the prosecutors to be investigated (who allegedly plotted against him).

One of the key turning points in the investigation happened in Italy. It is no coincidence that US Senator Lindsay Graham, one of Trump's closest allies and one of the leaDing critics of Mueller's investigation, has been visiting Rome over the last few days. There are many unanswered questions, one of the most important being: where is Joseph Mifsud? Il Foglio does not know, but it can reveal where he hid for seven months after Disappearing: in Rome, in a rented flat paid by Link Campus University. Mifsud taught there, and Il Foglio understands that he owns 35 per cent of Link International, which Link Campus owns 55 per cent of (the remaining 10 per cent is owned by Roberto Lippi, domiciled in Bogotà, Colombia).

Who is Mifsud and why is he so important? Mifsud was a Maltese lecturer at Link Campus, the university where Italian Deputy PM Luigi Di Maio introduced the Five Star Movement's foreign policy manifesto. The Five Star Movement recruited two of its senior staff from among Link's lecturers: Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta and Deputy Foreign Minister Emanuela Del Re.

Mifsud is a central player in Russiagate. AccorDing to Mueller's investigation, Mifsud is "The Professor" who informed Trump's campaign manager at the time, George Papadopoulos, about the "thousands of emails" revealing Dirt on Hillary Clinton that had come into Russian hands. This happened in April 2016, long before the Democrats Discovered that their system had been hacked. Mifsud introduced Papadopoulos to figures close to VlaDimir Putin, such as Ivan Timofeev, a member of the Russian International Affairs Council (a think tank founded by the Kremlin). Link Campus, the university founded by former Italian Minister of Home Affairs Vincenzo Scotti is a crucial place in this spy story, which resembles a Le Carré novel.

L'università più amata dai grillini ha un grosso guaio con il prof. del Russiagate

Mifsud e Scotti: mesi Di misteri. Non si sa cosa c'entri la Link University con i russi, ma non si comprende perché il rettore Dica cose non vere e perché tenti Di far sparire gli stretti rapporti con il professore maltese

Mifsud and Papadopoulos met for the first time at Link Campus on 14 March 2016. On 31 October 2017, when the documents in the investigation file were made public, Mifsud was at Link Campus coorDinating joint projects between the Italian university and the Lomonosov University in Moscow. Mifsud Disappeared the day after and has not answered emails or phone calls since. His name has also Disappeared from the website of the organisations he has been affiliated with. He is currently being sought by the Americans, the Russians and an Italian court. But nobody knows where Mifsud actually is. Link Campus might know but is unwilling to say. Mifsud lived in an apartment in Rome, in Via Cimarosa 3, owned by a Greek Diplomat, and the rent was paid by Link Campus. Il Foglio spoke with several of Mifsud's former neighbours and understands that he moved in when he went underground. The rental contract expired last July or August and was registered to "Link International": a company co-owned by Link Campus, with 30 employees and no financial statements available.

Free Joseph Mifsud!

Un trumpiano continua ad accusare il governo italiano. Urge chiarezza

These new elements refute previous claims by Link Campus regarDing its relationship with the Maltese academic. The university has repeatedly said that its relationship with "The Professor" was suspended in 2008 and resumed later when he was given the position of "visiting professor for 2017-2018". Mifsud never actually held any lectures because his contract was terminated when the scandal came to light, and all contact with the university ended after November 2017.

#6349518 at 2019-04-28 19:20:14 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8119: Do I Look Like I Know What A JPEG Is Edition

Italy's deputy PM says Alitalia bid deadline is Tuesday
(this airline is totally supported by the gov't so it's a bit of a big deal for them)

WARSAW (Reuters) - The deadline for bids to take part in a plan to rescue Italian flagship carrier Alitalia is next Tuesday, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Sunday.

Some newspapers on Sunday said Rome would have to put back the deadline for bids, perhaps until after European elections.

The state railway operator Ferrovie dello Stato and U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines are ready to contribute to a new rescue bid worth around 1 billion euros, but there is still a shortfall of around 400 million euros.

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Warsaw, Di Maio said the government had received no formal bids for Alitalia from motorway operator Atlantia, infrastructure company Toto HolDing or any other groups.

"We'll see in the next few days if there are any formal bids," he said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alitalia-m-a-DiMaio-idUSKCN1S40II

#6295105 at 2019-04-24 11:43:42 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8050: Qwick Bake Edition

[FINAL - Application under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 1982]

To the Australian Information Commissioner/Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,

Subverting the democratic process of the People of The United States of America, by a Foreign Government/Entity or inDividual, is considered an 'Act of War' by an 'Enemy Combatant'.

Now that the Mueller Report has been tabled by William Barr, the blockade to Australian FOIA transparency, ought be removed.

Hence I humbly request ALL information pertaining to potential spying by the Australian/UK Governments and other Entities/inDividuals, upon the Presidential CanDidate and subsequent POTUS, Donald J Trump.

The request is reasonable given the gravity of the matter involved. For similar reasons, it can not be considered to be interfering with the minister's functions.

The preDicate date searches required would be for documents/communications created from 1st January 2015 until 24th April 2019 inclusive - under section 15(2) of the FOIA 1982.

Please send the reply by email address only.

A) I seek all relevant cables, faxes, Diary entries, notes, letters, memos, reports, emails, draft emails, Five Eyes Signals, telephone records and other communications - by, to, between and amongst, but not limited to the following Entities/inDividuals:

ASIO/ASIS/ASD/DOD/DiO/AGO

Members of The National Security Committee of Cabinet (NSC) of Australia under the Turnbull and Morrison Governments

Members of the Armed Forces Council of Canada under the Harper and Trudeau Governments

Members of The Cabinet National Security Committee (NSC) of New Zealand under the Key and Ardern Governments

Members of the National Security Council (NSC) of the United Kingdom under the Cameron and May Governments

Huma AbeDin
Jacinda Ardern
Julie Bishop
Rear-Admiral Scott Bishop
Greta Bossenmaier
George BranDis
John Brennan
Chris Burrows
David Cameron
Christian Cantor
James Clapper
Hillary Clinton
James Comey
CSIS/CSE/CFINTCOM
Sir Richard Dearlove
The Lord Paul Deighton
Emanuela Del Re
Luigi Di Maio
Alexander Downer
Sir Bill English
Richard Fadden
Niall Fitzgerald
Jeremy Fleming
GCHQ/SIS/Di
Hakluyt & Company (HolDingham Group Limited)
Stefan Halper
Robert Hannigan
Joe Hockey
Jeremy Hunt
Valerie Jarrett
Daniel Jean
Boris Johnson
Michael Keenan
John Key
Sir Iain Lobban
Loretta Lynch
Andrew McCabe
Theresa May
MI6/MI5
Joseph Mifsud
NZSIS/DDiS/GCSB
Barack Obama
Carter Page
Lisa Page
George Papadopoulos
Bill Priestap
Harjit Sajjan
Christopher Steele
Peter Strzok
Erika Thompson
Ivan Timofeev
Elisabetta Trenta
Justin Trudeau
Malcolm Turnbull
General Jonathon Vance
Olga Vinogradova
Sally Yates
Alex Younger

(no insinuations alleged)

B) With regard to the Entity/Team posting on 8chan under the acronym QAnon or Q (Q level clearance in the US Department of Energy), I request NSC, ASIO/ASIS/ASD/DOD/DiO/AGO information in relation to the irrefutable mathematical/statistically significant association between Q Post and POTUS tweet delta's.

As you are aware, QAnon has posted vast quantities of military intelligence related to the above mentioned subversion. The relevance of a Q/POTUS association is therefore profound and of national interest. Co-orDination/collaboration with the US Embassy in Canberra is clearly mandatory prior to an association Disclosure.

Whence, I seek all relevant cables, faxes, Diary entries, notes, letters, memos, reports, emails, draft emails, Five Eyes Signals, telephone records and other communications - by, to, between and amongst, but not limited to the following Entities - NSC, ASIO/ASIS/ASD/DOD/DiO/AGO on the Q Post/POTUS tweet delta association.

C) Pertaining to A + B, I seek all relevant cables, faxes, Diary entries, notes, letters, memos, reports, emails, draft emails, Five Eyes Signals, telephone records and other communications with regard to any D-Notice/gag/suppression order or suggested suppression Directive by the Australian Government or any other Entity/inDividual to the Australian MSM.

Yours Faithfully,

Dr Russell McGregor

MBBS, BSC, FRANZCP

24th April 2019

#6260356 at 2019-04-21 06:17:43 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8005: Lights On, Nightshift, We Got Booms Incoming Edition

NOTABLE

Italy Vows to Seize Gold from Central Bank: "It Belongs to People, Not Bankers"

Italy's government is pursuing new laws that could seize gold from the central bank and place it in control of Italian citizens.

"The gold belongs to the Italians, not to the bankers. We are ready to battle everywhere in Italy and to bring Italians to the streets if necessary," said Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy opposition party,.

Zerohedge.com reports: Two weeks ago, somewhat out of the blue, ECB President Mario Draghi issued an odd statement confirming that the European Central Bank needs to approve any operation in the foreign reserves of euro zone countries, incluDing gold and large foreign currency holDings.

Ads by Revcontent

"The ECB shall approve both the operations in foreign reserve assets remaining with the NCBs (national central banks)...and Member States' transactions with their foreign exchange working balances above a certain threshold,"

"The purpose of this competence is to ensure consistency with the exchange rate and monetary policy of the Union."

Specifically, Draghi made this statement to two Italian members of the European Parliament.

At the time it Did not seem notable for any reason other than its peculiar timing, but now things are starting to make more sense as The Wall Street Journal reports that Italy's ruling populists pushed ahead this week with efforts to seize control of the central bank and its gold reserves.

Find Out More >

19,723

Complaining that hundreds of thousands of small inDividual investors lost billions of dollars after several Italian banks failed in recent years, the anti-establishment '5 Star Movement' and the nationalist 'League', depict the central bank as a symbol of a technocratic elite aloof from the needs of orDinary Italians.

"We need a change of course at the Bank of Italy if we think about what happened in the last years," said Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the 5 Star Movement.

Five Star and the League have repeatedly attacked the Bank of Italy for not preventing the banking crises, and blamed it for the losses suffered by mom-and-pop savers who had bought bank shares and bonds.

"If you are here with your current account in the red, it's because the people who were supposed to control things Didn't do so," League's leader, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, told a group of former investors in Banca Popolare Di Vicenza, which was liquidated in 2017.

And this week saw Italian lawmakers from 5 Star asking Parliament to pass two draft laws:

One law would instruct the central bank's owners, most of them private banks, to sell their sharesto the Italian Treasury at prices from the 1930s.

The other law would declare the Italian people to be the owners of the Bank of Italy's reserve of 2451.8 metric tons of gold, worth around $102 billion at current prices.

As The Wall Street Journal notes, such a move could in theory widen the scope for selling the gold and reduce the bank's reserves, which help underpin the financial system...

"The gold belongs to the Italians, not to the bankers," said Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy, a far-right opposition party that supports both bills. "We are ready to battle everywhere in Italy and to bring Italians to the streets if necessary."

The establishment sees it Differently, warning that their actions are an attempt to undermine the Bank of Italy's independence, and to spend the nation's gold reserves on populist policies.

"Gold is part of the assets of the Bank of Italy and can't be used for monetary financing of the Treasury," said Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco.

"This looks like revolutionary expropriation," said Gianluca Garbi, chief executive of Banca Sistema SpA.

But asThe Wall Street Journal concludes, the 5 Star Movement and the League support public ownership of the gold reserves, and with backing from parties comprising 60% of lawmakers, the draft law has enough support to pass. Lawmakers from 5 Star also support nationalizing the central bank, while the League hasn't decided yet, leaving the bill short of a majority with around 40% support.

As of last week they had forced the creation of a parliamentary commission to look into the failure of Italian banks, launching what could be months of tense scrutiny.

Is it any wonder, Russia (and China) have started to horde gold?

https://newspunch.com/italy-seize-gold-central-bank-belongs-people-not-bankers/

#6123568 at 2019-04-10 18:59:00 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7831: The PANIC Watch Edition

Italian Gov't Moves to Seize Reserves from Central Bank

Italy's government is pushing ahead with new laws challenging the central bank's control of the country's reserves. Rome is calling for public ownership of the nation's gold.

The ruling coalition of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the League parties proposed two bills that have evoked nationwide controversy over the country's long-stanDing financial and monetary system. One draft law may, reportedly, oblige the central bank's owners to sell their shares to the Italian Treasury at prices from the 1930s, while the second law is set to declare Italian nationals to be the owners of the Bank of Italy's reserves.

"The gold belongs to the Italians, not to the bankers. We are ready to battle everywhere in Italy and to bring Italians to the streets if necessary," said Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy opposition party, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

The 5-Star Movement and the League previously blamed the current system of governing the country's monetary system for losses of small inDividual investors caused by the recent downfall of several Italian financial institutions.

AccorDing to government officials, the central bank failed to maintain proper supervision of the country's banking system during the latest crisis that put the entire monetary system of the Eurozone at risk.

"If you are here with your current account in the red, it's because the people who were supposed to control things Didn't do so," Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister of Italy, Matteo Salvini said in February.

The Bank of Italy, which holds 2,534 metric tons of gold worth some $102 billion, currently enjoys full independence with the entire decision-making process absolutely autonomous from the government.

"We need a change of course at the Bank of Italy if we think about what happened in the last years," Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said earlier this year, calling for the current administration of the regulator to be replaced.

https://geopolitics.co/2019/04/10/italian-govt-moves-to-seize-reserves-from-central-bank/

#6087866 at 2019-04-07 21:10:43 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7786: Secure Our Border, Close The Loopholes Edition

"It Belongs To The People, Not The Bankers" - Italy Moves To Seize Gold From Central Bank

Two weeks ago, somewhat out of the blue, ECB President Mario Draghi issued an odd statement confirming that the European Central Bank needs to approve any operation in the foreign reserves of euro zone countries, incluDing gold and large foreign currency holDings. "The ECB shall approve both the operations in foreign reserve assets remaining with the NCBs (national central banks)…and Member States' transactions with their foreign exchange working balances above a certain threshold," "The purpose of this competence is to ensure consistency with the exchange rate and monetary policy of the Union."

Specifically, Draghi made this statement to two Italian members of the European Parliament. At the time it Did not seem notable for any reason other than its peculiar timing, but now things are starting to make more sense as The Wall Street Journal reports that Italy's ruling populists pushed ahead this week with efforts to seize control of the central bank and its gold reserves. Complaining that hundreds of thousands of small inDividual investors lost billions of dollars after several Italian banks failed in recent years, the anti-establishment '5 Star Movement' and the nationalist 'League', depict the central bank as a symbol of a technocratic elite aloof from the needs of orDinary Italians. "We need a change of course at the Bank of Italy if we think about what happened in the last years," said Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the 5 Star Movement.

Five Star and the League have repeatedly attacked the Bank of Italy for not preventing the banking crises, and blamed it for the losses suffered by mom-and-pop savers who had bought bank shares and bonds. "If you are here with your current account in the red, it's because the people who were supposed to control things Didn't do so," League's leader, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, told a group of former investors in Banca Popolare Di Vicenza, which was liquidated in 2017.

And this week saw Italian lawmakers from 5 Star asking Parliament to pass two draft laws:

One law would instruct the central bank's owners, most of them private banks, to sell their shares to the Italian Treasury at prices from the 1930s. The other law would declare the Italian people to be the owners of the Bank of Italy's reserve of 2451.8 metric tons of gold, worth around $102 billion at current prices. As The Wall Street Journal notes, such a move could in theory widen the scope for selling the gold and reduce the bank's reserves, which help underpin the financial system…

"The gold belongs to the Italians, not to the bankers," said Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy, a far-right opposition party that supports both bills. "We are ready to battle everywhere in Italy and to bring Italians to the streets if necessary." The establishment sees it Differently, warning that their actions are an attempt to undermine the Bank of Italy's independence, and to spend the nation's gold reserves on populist policies.

"Gold is part of the assets of the Bank of Italy and can't be used for monetary financing of the Treasury," said Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco. "This looks like revolutionary expropriation," said Gianluca Garbi, chief executive of Banca Sistema SpA.

But as The Wall Street Journal concludes, the 5 Star Movement and the League support public ownership of the gold reserves, and with backing from parties comprising 60% of lawmakers, the draft law has enough support to pass. Lawmakers from 5 Star also support nationalizing the central bank, while the League hasn't decided yet, leaving the bill short of a majority with around 40% support. As of last week they had forced the creation of a parliamentary commission to look into the failure of Italian banks, launching what could be months of tense scrutiny. Is it any wonder, Russia (and China) have started to horde gold?

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-05/it-belongs-people-not-bankers-italy-moves-seize-gold-central-bank

#6086580 at 2019-04-07 19:06:42 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7784: Border States are Very Key – Public Will Learn Edition

"It Belongs To The People, Not The Bankers" - Italy Moves To Seize Gold From Central Bank

Two weeks ago, somewhat out of the blue, ECB President Mario Draghi issued an odd statement confirming that the European Central Bank needs to approve any operation in the foreign reserves of euro zone countries, incluDing gold and large foreign currency holDings.

"The ECB shall approve both the operations in foreign reserve assets remaining with the NCBs (national central banks)…and Member States' transactions with their foreign exchange working balances above a certain threshold,"

"The purpose of this competence is to ensure consistency with the exchange rate and monetary policy of the Union."

Specifically, Draghi made this statement to two Italian members of the European Parliament.

At the time it Did not seem notable for any reason other than its peculiar timing, but now things are starting to make more sense as The Wall Street Journal reports that Italy's ruling populists pushed ahead this week with efforts to seize control of the central bank and its gold reserves.

Complaining that hundreds of thousands of small inDividual investors lost billions of dollars after several Italian banks failed in recent years, the anti-establishment '5 Star Movement' and the nationalist 'League', depict the central bank as a symbol of a technocratic elite aloof from the needs of orDinary Italians.

"We need a change of course at the Bank of Italy if we think about what happened in the last years," said Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the 5 Star Movement.

Five Star and the League have repeatedly attacked the Bank of Italy for not preventing the banking crises, and blamed it for the losses suffered by mom-and-pop savers who had bought bank shares and bonds.

"If you are here with your current account in the red, it's because the people who were supposed to control things Didn't do so," League's leader, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, told a group of former investors in Banca Popolare Di Vicenza, which was liquidated in 2017.

And this week saw Italian lawmakers from 5 Star asking Parliament to pass two draft laws:

One law would instruct the central bank's owners, most of them private banks, to sell their shares to the Italian Treasury at prices from the 1930s.

The other law would declare the Italian people to be the owners of the Bank of Italy's reserve of 2451.8 metric tons of gold, worth around $102 billion at current prices.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-05/it-belongs-people-not-bankers-italy-moves-seize-gold-central-bank

#6083643 at 2019-04-07 13:15:18 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7780: Qresear.ch Edition

Italy Moves To Seize Gold From Central Bank
It Belongs To The People, Not The Bankers

Two weeks ago, somewhat out of the blue, ECB President Mario Draghi issued an odd statement confirming that the European Central Bank needs to approve any operation in the foreign reserves of euro zone countries, incluDing gold and large foreign currency holDings.

"The ECB shall approve both the operations in foreign reserve assets remaining with the NCBs (national central banks)…and Member States' transactions with their foreign exchange working balances above a certain threshold,"

"The purpose of this competence is to ensure consistency with the exchange rate and monetary policy of the Union."

Specifically, Draghi made this statement to two Italian members of the European Parliament.

At the time it Did not seem notable for any reason other than its peculiar timing, but now things are starting to make more sense as The Wall Street Journal reports that Italy's ruling populists pushed ahead this week with efforts to seize control of the central bank and its gold reserves.
Complaining that hundreds of thousands of small inDividual investors lost billions of dollars after several Italian banks failed in recent years, the anti-establishment '5 Star Movement' and the nationalist 'League', depict the central bank as a symbol of a technocratic elite aloof from the needs of orDinary Italians.

"We need a change of course at the Bank of Italy if we think about what happened in the last years," said Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the 5 Star Movement.
Five Star and the League have repeatedly attacked the Bank of Italy for not preventing the banking crises, and blamed it for the losses suffered by mom-and-pop savers who had bought bank shares and bonds.

"If you are here with your current account in the red, it's because the people who were supposed to control things Didn't do so," League's leader, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, told a group of former investors in Banca Popolare Di Vicenza, which was liquidated in 2017.

And this week saw Italian lawmakers from 5 Star asking Parliament to pass two draft laws:

One law would instruct the central bank's owners, most of them private banks, to sell their shares to the Italian Treasury at prices from the 1930s.

The other law would declare the Italian people to be the owners of the Bank of Italy's reserve of 2451.8 metric tons of gold, worth around $102 billion at current prices.

As The Wall Street Journal notes, such a move could in theory widen the scope for selling the gold and reduce the bank's reserves, which help underpin the financial system…

"The gold belongs to the Italians, not to the bankers," said Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy, a far-right opposition party that supports both bills. "We are ready to battle everywhere in Italy and to bring Italians to the streets if necessary."

The establishment sees it Differently, warning that their actions are an attempt to undermine the Bank of Italy's independence, and to spend the nation's gold reserves on populist policies.

"Gold is part of the assets of the Bank of Italy and can't be used for monetary financing of the Treasury," said Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco.

"This looks like revolutionary expropriation," said Gianluca Garbi, chief executive of Banca Sistema SpA.

But as The Wall Street Journal concludes, the 5 Star Movement and the League support public ownership of the gold reserves, and with backing from parties comprising 60% of lawmakers, the draft law has enough support to pass. Lawmakers from 5 Star also support nationalizing the central bank, while the League hasn't decided yet, leaving the bill short of a majority with around 40% support.

As of last week they had forced the creation of a parliamentary commission to look into the failure of Italian banks, launching what could be months of tense scrutiny.

Is it any wonder, Russia (and China) have started to horde gold?

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-05/it-belongs-people-not-bankers-italy-moves-seize-gold-central-bank

#5846372 at 2019-03-23 16:15:26 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7479: SDNY is the New Narrative Edition

Italy endorses China's Belt and Road plan in first for a G7 nation

ROME (Reuters) - Italy endorsed China's ambitious "Belt and Road" infrastructure plan on Saturday, becoming the first major Western power to back the initiative to help revive the struggling Italian economy. Saturday's signing ceremony was the highlight of a three-day trip to Italy by Chinese President Xi Jinping, with the two nations boosting their ties at a time when the United States is locked in a trade war with China. The rapprochement has angered Washington and alarmed some European Union allies, who fear it could see Beijing gain access to sensitive technologies and critical transport hubs.

Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio played down such concerns, telling reporters that although Rome remained fully committed to its Western partners, it had to put Italy first when it came to commercial ties. "This is a very important day for us, a day when Made-in-Italy has won, Italy has won and Italian companies have won," said Di Maio, who signed the memorandum of understanDing on behalf of the Italian government in a Renaissance villa.

Taking advantage of Xi's visit, Italian firms inked deals with Chinese counterparts worth an initial 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion). Di Maio said these contracts had a potential, future value of 20 billion euros. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) lies at the heart of China's foreign policy strategy and was incorporated into the ruling Communist Party constitution in 2017, reflecting Xi's desire for his country to take a global leadership role. The United States worries that it is designed to strengthen China's military influence and could be used to spread technologies capable of spying on Western interests.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-china-president/italy-endorses-chinas-belt-and-road-plan-in-first-for-a-g7-nation-idUSKCN1R40DV?il=0

#5845133 at 2019-03-23 14:38:09 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7477: EBAKE Edition

Italy signs deals with China worth 2.5 billion euros, more to come - Di Maio

ROME (Reuters) - Italy signed deals worth 2.5 billion euros (£2.14 billion) during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Rome, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Saturday, adDing that the value of the contracts could rise to 20 billion.

Earlier, Di Maio inked a preliminary deal making Italy the first major wealthy Western nation to endorse China's ambitious "Belt and Road" infrastructure project despite worries amongst key allies that this could undermine Western interests.

Di Maio told reporters the government remained committed to its Western partners but said it had to put "Italy first".

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/Italy-signs-deals-with-China-worth-2-5-billion-euros-more-to-come-Di-Maio–28228982/?countview=0

#5635708 at 2019-03-12 04:42:49 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7207: 1 = 2 Edition

Fucking Italians.

They do some things so god dam well (cars, food, fashion, laDies), but then they fuck everything else up.

Hopefully Sergio Mattarella can be more Trumpish.

EU CRISIS: France and Italy row ESCALATES - 'Alps just got HIGHER'

RELATIONS between Rome and Paris have taken another hit with Italy's president forced to issue a public appeal for calm. Sergio Mattarella warned both countries to work together to end the standoff between the two sides, sparked by tensions between French president Emmanuel Macron and Italian deputy prime ministers Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini.

Relations are now so low one Italian political commentator said it was if "the Alps just got taller".

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1098583/france-italy-emmanuel-macron-matteo-salvini-eu-news

#5608197 at 2019-03-10 16:29:06 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7171: Plane Crashes Galore Edition

Italy wants to sign Belt and Road deal to help exports - deputy PM

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy wants to join China's giant "Belt and Road" infrastructure plan to boost Italian exports, not to strengthen political ties with the Asian giant, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Sunday.

Di Maio was responDing to U.S. concerns at the prospect of a key ally supporting the Chinese initiative. A spokesman for the White House's group of national security advisers, Garrett Marquis, on Saturday called the Chinese venture a "vanity project" that Italy should steer clear of.

The "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI), championed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, aims to link China by sea and land with southeast and central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, through an infrastructure network on the lines of the ancient Silk Road.

Aside from boosting trade and investment, Xi aims to advance exchanges in areas such as science, technology and culture.

"I have heard the alarm being raised from the United States yesterday about this deal on the Silk Road that Italy wants to sign with China," Di Maio said at an event organised by supporters of his ruling 5-Star Movement.
https://www.marketscreener.com/news/Italy-wants-to-sign-Belt-and-Road-deal-to-help-exports-deputy-PM–28141598/

#5347849 at 2019-02-23 19:17:36 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6835: Anniversary Of Iwo Jima Edition

Macron MP Compares TraDitional Marriage Activists to Islamic Terrorists

An MP belonging to French President Emmanuel Macron's La Republique En Marche! (LREM) has compared members of a pro-traDitional marriage movement to raDical Islamic terrorists.

LREM MP Marlène Schiappa, who serves as Secretary of Equality, made her comments earlier this week, comparing the Manif Pour Tous movement, which protested against same-sex marriage, to Islamic raDicals.

She alleged the "existence of an ideological convergence" between the two, Europe 1

"There is an explosion of anti-Semitic acts, but also homophobic," Ms Schiappa said, before asserting that "there is an alliance between the people of the extreme right and the Islamists, who unite in fact in this fight."

"There are slogans of the Manif Pour Tous that are launched in the suburbs," she added, referring to the heavily migrant-populated Paris suburbs which have seen a number of both anti-Semitic and homophobic attacks in recent years.

The Manif Pour Tous movement reacted to the comments in a press release, saying they would be lodging a formal defamation complaint against Schiappa in court.

"These scandalous remarks are an insult to the millions of French people mobilized since 2012 to peacefully show their attachment to the family, the first place of solidarity and refuge for the most vulnerable. These remarks are also an insult to the victims of Islamist terrorism whose suffering they relativize," the group said.

Schiappa's comments are not the first controversial statements from the LREM MP in recent months. In January she proposed that "foreign powers" could be behind the anti-establishment Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) movement.

"Who finances the rioters? Foreign powers? The question is not incongruous, given the positions of Italian officials," she suggested.

The comments were in reference to Italian Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio expressing support for the Yellow Vests and later meeting with several of their leaders.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/02/23/macron-mp-compares-traDitional-marriage-activists-to-islamic-terrorists/

#5225997 at 2019-02-17 19:13:03 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6677: Dub Dubs and Zero Deltas Edition

Juncker Changes Rules So EU Commissioners Can Take Sides in Elections

European Commission boss Jean-Claude Juncker has changed the rules governing the political activity of European Union Commissioners, allowing them to actively campaign in the upcoming EU Parliament elections.

Formerly the EU Commission, an unelected body which acts as the bloc's executive and is the sole initiator of EU-level laws, was regarded as technocratic rather than overtly political, and not supposed to take partisan political stances of its own volition - at least in theory.

But the new rules will allow the Commission to campaign with, endorse, and support canDidates and parties ahead of the European Parliament elections set to be held in May, Il Giornale reports.

"From the beginning I wanted this Commission to have a political value: the Commissioners assume full ownership and political responsibility for all the Commission's decisions," Junker said, adDing: "I expect them to fully and personally engage with the citizens, and actively participating in the upcoming elections to the European Parliament is an integral part of this commitment."

Prior to the new rules, Commissioners have not been particularly shy about voicing their poltical opinions anyway, especially with respect to Italy's populist coalition government, effectively led by Five Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio and League (La Lega) leader Matteo Salvini.

EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs Pierre Moscovici has repeatedly slammed Italy over the past several months, even referring to populists across the continent as "little Mussolinis."

In November, Moscovici even went as far as claiming that war could return to Europe if populists gain power across the continent, saying, "If we reintroduce Divisions between us, North-South, East-West, and if national preference becomes Europe's way of thinking, Europe will Die... Without Europe, I'm sure the war can re-emerge here."

The European Commissioner responsible for the budget, Günther Oettinger, has also made statements Directed at Europe's populists and conservatives in Italy, Poland, and Hungary, saying, "In my opinion, the [European Union] project approaches mortal danger... Some inside Europe want to weaken it or even destroy it."

Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker is also no stranger to political statements against populists. Last June, Juncker declared the need to destroy populism before this year's European Parliament elections, and later that year blamed populism for several EU member-states opting out of the controversial UN migration pact.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/02/17/juncker-changes-rules-so-eu-commissioners-can-take-sides-in-elections/

#5207970 at 2019-02-16 18:56:07 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6654: Ghost Protocol Edition

WEEK 14: MSM still ignores Yellow Vests except when calling them violent & bad for the EU economy
2-9-19

Week 14 of the Yellow Vest Protests and nothing has changed. The MSM barely covers it. Or covers only violence (or threatened violence) by YV's, leaDing one #YellowVests follower to tweet out "The Revolution will not be televised." Literally.

——————–
The UK Express DiD cover the protests with this headline:
France 'on brink of CIVIL WAR' as Yellow Vest leader threatens to 'BRING DOWN government'

THE leader of the Yellow Vest movement that has wreaked havoc across Europe with violent protests that triggered the collapse of the French economy has declared he has "militiamen ready to bring down the government" following a shock meeting with the Italian coalition….

France is "on the brink of civil war", accorDing to a Yellow Vest leader Cristophe Chalencon, one of the leaders of the Yellow Vest revolution, said France is "on the brink of cvil war" before he vowed to fight French President Emmanuel Macron over Paris austerity. In a gathering in Italy with anti-establishment party 5-Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio and his right-hand man Alessandro Di Battista, the Frenchman raged: "We have people, militiamen, ready to intervene because they also want to bring down the government. Today everything is calm, but we are on the brink of a civil war. "I know that I risk a lot. I can get shot in the head at any moment. But I don't care. I defend my convictions. "Because if I got shot in the head, the people - Macron would end up on the guillotine….

Like France, tensions in Italy have also hit boiling point. Though unlike Yellow Vest protesters taking aim at their leader, Mr Macron, over his 23 percent fuel hike and rising living costs, in Italy the coalition government made up of Mr Di Maio and League leader Matteo Salvini are embroiled in a bitter battle
with their superiors, the EU.

Recently, Italy's shrinking financial economy has sparked fears the troubled nation will face an early election, which will plunge the entire Eurozone into more chaos. This follows news the French economy has been left in tatters after Mr Macron caved in to demands from Yellow Vest demonstrators, costing billions of euros. Meanwhile, Germany - Europe's largest economy - announced it narrowly avoided a recession following a second consecutive quarter of negative growth. DekaBank economist Andreas Scheuerle told Sky News Germany "got away with a black eye" instead.

Bottom line: All the UK Express cares about is propping up a failing EU.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1087990/yellow-vest-protests-Cristophe-Chalencon-france-italy-germany-emmanuel-macron-Luigi-Di-mai
————————–

Meanwhile, protests in Germany, England, and Canada receive little or no coverage except on Twitter.

#5157329 at 2019-02-13 18:12:21 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6588: Moar Indictments are Being Unsealed Edition

'I am not a puppet': EU war of words erupts as Italian PM rejects Verhofstadt's claims

Italian PM Giuseppe Conte has hit back at claims made by a chief EU lawmaker that he is a "puppet" of his country's coalition party leaders, after declaring the bloc had "lost contact" with its people.

The EU Parliament witnessed ill-tempered exchanges between Conte, who was making his debut speech, and leaDing MEPs. Guy Verhofstadt addressed the PM, saying that he regrets Italy has gone from being a big defender of Europe "to the back of the line."

Bemoaning what he sees as the "political degeneration of Italy," Verhofstadt accused Conte of being a "puppet" of the Five Star Movement's Luigi Di Maio and the Northern League's Matteo Salvini. He also claimed that Italy, at times, "behaves in an anti-European way, openly spiteful against other member states."

The senior Belgian MEP later suggested on social meDia that Italy is being unduly influenced by Russian President VlaDimir Putin, causing EU Division on the issue of Nicolas Maduro's legitimacy as president of Venezuela.

https://www.rt.com/news/451365-conte-verhofstadt-puppet-eu/

#5080928 at 2019-02-08 18:21:18 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6488: ]Whitaker[ Edition

Yellow Vests are reaction to ultra-liberal policies - Italy's deputy PM

The ideas of the Yellow Vests describe Europe's future, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio has insisted, as he defended his meeting with the French protesters which enraged Paris.

In a letter to French newspaper Le Monde, Di Maio stressed that he was impressed by the Yellow Vests' manifesto and said their demands "go beyond the right and the left and put the citizen and his needs at the centre."

"This is why I wanted to meet with Yellow Vest representatives... because I don't believe that Europe's political future lies with parties on the right or left, or with so-called 'new' parties which in reality follow traDition," he wrote.

https://www.rt.com/news/451009-italy-france-minister-letter/

#5069162 at 2019-02-07 20:14:49 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6473: Bernie's Onions Edition

France recalls Rome envoy over worst verbal onslaught 'since the war'

Di Maio this week met leaders of the gilets jaunes seeking to run in May's European parliament elections as he declared the "wind of change has crossed the Alps" and a "new Europe is being born of the yellow vests". France said the comments were an unacceptable "provocation".

"Italy's two deputy prime ministers, the far-right Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio of the populist, anti-establishment Five Star Movement, have in recent months criticised the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on a host of inflammatory issues, from immigration to the gilets jaunes (yellow vest) anti-government demonstrations.

Relations soured after Italy's populist government came to power last June. Macron, who was under pressure at home for not accepting the Aquarius migrant ship that Salvini turned away from Italian ports, said populism was spreaDing across Europe "a bit like leprosy".

https://www.theguarDian.com/world/2019/feb/07/france-italy-ambassador-macron-Di-Maio-salvini-second-world-war

#5065326 at 2019-02-07 13:25:33 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6468: Eye of the Wind Edition

>>5065306 MOAR

France recalls ambassador to Italy over 'baseless and repeated' political attacks
By Staff Reuters

(video in article)
WATCH ABOVE: Thousands of protesters hailing from French unions marched with "yellow vest" protesters on Tuesday in the western French city of Nantes to protest French President Emmanuel Macron's government.

- A A +
France has recalled its ambassador in Rome after what Paris described as baseless and repeated attacks from Italy's political leaders in past months, incluDing gestures of support for "yellow vest" protesters, and urged Italy to return to a more friendly stance.

"France has been, for several months, the target of repeated, baseless attacks and outrageous statements," France's foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said Italy's attacks were without precedent since the Second World War. "Having Disagreements is one thing, but manipulating the relationship for electoral aims is another."

READ MORE: Can France's leader-less 'yellow vests' become a true political force?

Italy's two deputy prime ministers, Matteo Salvini of the right-wing League and Luigi Di Maio of the populist, anti-establishment 5-Star movement, have goaded French President Emmanuel Macron on a host of inflammatory issues.

"All of these actions are creating a serious situation which is raising questions about the Italian government's intentions towards France."

Di Maio met with leaders of the anti-government yellow vest movement in France on Tuesday.

"The winds of change have crossed the Alps," he tweeted, along with a photo of himself and the yellow vest leaders.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4933940/france-italy-yellow-vests/

#5065306 at 2019-02-07 13:21:42 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6468: Eye of the Wind Edition

Jerusalem Post Breaking News

FRANCE RECALLS AMBASSADOR TO ITALY AS STRIFE BETWEEN COUNTRIES WORSENS
BY REUTERS FEBRUARY 7, 2019 15:09

France has recalled its ambassador in Rome after what Paris described as baseless and repeated attacks from Italy's political leaders in past months, and urged Italy to return to a more friendly stance.

"France has been, for several months, the target of repeated, baseless attacks and outrageous statements," France's foreign ministry said in a statement.
It said Italy's attacks were without precedent since World War Two. "Having Disagreements is one thing, but manipulating the relationship for electoral aims is another."


hails energy revolution as Leviathan edges closer to completion, January 31, 2019 (GPO)
Netanyahu Israel thwarts Iranian cyber attacks daily, January 29, 2019 (GPO)
09-2017_03 02

Netnayahu celebrates record 4 million tourists
to Israel, January 27, 2019 (GPO)
PopSockets CEO Teases Possible IPO, Upcoming Electronic Product
Powell, Trump Discuss Economic Outlook at White House Dinner

Italy's two deputy prime ministers, Matteo Salvini of the right-wing League and Luigi Di Maio of the populist, anti-establishment 5-Star movement, have goaded French President Emmanuel Macron on a host of inflammatory issues.

"All of these actions are creating a serious situation which is raising questions about the Italian government's intentions towards France."

https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/France-recalls-ambassador-to-Italy-as-strife-between-countries-worsens-580003

#5052635 at 2019-02-06 13:22:10 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6452: Ebake Edition

'Winds of change crossed the Alps': Italy's deputy PM meets Yellow Vest leaders
Published time: 6 Feb, 2019 13:08

Italy's deputy prime minister met with leaders of France's Yellow Vests, extenDing a helping hand and giving more oxygen to a simmering feud between embattled Macron and the government in Rome.
Luigi Di Maio, Deputy Prime Minister and leader of Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, had a sit-down with two of the Yellow Vest leaders, Cristophe Chalencon and Ingrid Levavasseur. "The wind of change has crossed the Alps!" he proclaimed on Twitter, uploaDing a photo of himself with the two.

The Yellow Vest leaders appeared to have swapped their Distinctive high-visibility jackets for more casual fatigues, but it apparently Didn't make the conversation any less meaningful. "We have a lot of common positions and values, such as the defense of citizens, social rights, Direct democracy, and environment," the 5-Star Movement said.

While Di Maio's demarche will preDictably be met with little praise in Paris, he is not the first top official to publicly render support to the French grassroots movement. Matteo Salvini, another Deputy Prime Minister who also leads the Lega Nord party, once said he supports "honest citizens who protest against a governing president [who stands] against his people."

In another jibe, Salvini, who rarely minces his words, said the French "will be able to free themselves from a terrible president" on May 26, when the European Parliament elections take place.

Interestingly, Chalencon and Levavasseur are on the list of prominent Yellow Vests that are hoping to run in 2019 European elections, accorDing to French meDia. "We want to create a list that resembles the citizens and shows that we are independent, non-partisan from the first day," campaign manager Hayk Shahinyan told BFMTV.

Meanwhile, Emmanuel Macron's situation at home is precarious as the nationwide Yellow Vest protests entered the 12th consecutive week. Protests that began as a response to a fuel tax hike evolved into a broad rejection of his neoliberal economic policies.

READ MORE: Going nationwide: 2/3 of French back anti-govt Yellow Vests protests, poll shows

Macron, who was dubbed 'the president of the rich', tried to quell the riots by introducing higher minimum wages and promising to halt the fuel tax rise at the end of 2018. However, the measures seemed to take little effect as the rallies resumed this year.

https://www.rt.com/news/450789-italy-meeting-yellow-vests/?utm_source=rss&utm_meDium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

#4911951 at 2019-01-26 04:27:18 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6271: Nobody Is Sleeping Tonight Edition

Italy's Salvini hopes France will get rid of 'terrible' Macron

Italy's far-right Interior Minister worsened already strained relations between Rome and Paris on Tuesday, saying he hoped the French could soon free themselves of a "terrible president", centrist Emmanuel Macron.

"I hope that the French will be able to free themselves from a terrible president," Matteo Salvini said in a video on Facebook in the latest taunt of the French leader by the populist government across the Alps.

"The opportunity will come on May 26 (the European elections) when finally the French people will be able to take back control of its future, destiny, (and) pride, which are poorly represented by a character like Macron", he said.

Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister, said he felt "close, with all my heart... to the French people, the millions of men and women who live in France under a terrible government and terrible president".

The fresh attack on Macron, who signed a new friendship treaty with Germany on Tuesday, follows a series of incenDiary remarks by Italy's other deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio.

Di Maio, head of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), which rules in coalition with Salvini's far-right League, accused Paris on Monday of continuing to colonise Africa and causing people to migrate from the continent.

France summoned Italy's ambassador in protest over Di Maio's comments that "the EU should sanction France and all countries like France that impoverish Africa and make these people leave".

Relations between the two capitals, usually close EU allies, have deteriorated since the M5S-League coalition became the European Union's first populist-only government in June last year.

Di Maio and Salvini recently backed "yellow vest" protesters who have been demonstrating against Macron's government since November.

WINNING

Rest here: https://en.zamanalwsl.net/news/article/40458/

#4911779 at 2019-01-26 04:12:36 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6270: Shills Shillin', Anons Chillin' Edition

Italy's Salvini hopes France will get rid of 'terrible' Macron

Italy's far-right Interior Minister worsened already strained relations between Rome and Paris on Tuesday, saying he hoped the French could soon free themselves of a "terrible president", centrist Emmanuel Macron.

"I hope that the French will be able to free themselves from a terrible president," Matteo Salvini said in a video on Facebook in the latest taunt of the French leader by the populist government across the Alps.

"The opportunity will come on May 26 (the European elections) when finally the French people will be able to take back control of its future, destiny, (and) pride, which are poorly represented by a character like Macron", he said.

Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister, said he felt "close, with all my heart… to the French people, the millions of men and women who live in France under a terrible government and terrible president".

The fresh attack on Macron, who signed a new friendship treaty with Germany on Tuesday, follows a series of incenDiary remarks by Italy's other deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio.

Di Maio, head of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), which rules in coalition with Salvini's far-right League, accused Paris on Monday of continuing to colonise Africa and causing people to migrate from the continent.

France summoned Italy's ambassador in protest over Di Maio's comments that "the EU should sanction France and all countries like France that impoverish Africa and make these people leave".

Relations between the two capitals, usually close EU allies, have deteriorated since the M5S-League coalition became the European Union's first populist-only government in June last year.

Di Maio and Salvini recently backed "yellow vest" protesters who have been demonstrating against Macron's government since November.
WINNING
Rest here: https://en.zamanalwsl.net/news/article/40458/

#4877318 at 2019-01-23 20:59:12 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6226: POTUS Has Ultimate Authority Edition

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/world/africa/africa-cfa-franc-currency.html

NOTABLE AF

Ok GIUSE this isn't as sexy an issue as others, but this rift between Italy and France is bringing to light the French CFA currency and the subjugation of 14 african countries.

This could be big.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/world/africa/africa-cfa-franc-currency.html

Jan. 22, 2019

Luigi Di Maio, an Italian deputy prime minister, took aim at President Emmanuel Macron of France this week, laying the blame for migration, a deeply Divisive issue in Italy, on Mr. Macron.

Citing a French-backed currency known as the C.F.A. franc that is used by 14 nations in western and central Africa, Mr. Di Maio accused France of using the currency to exploit former colonies.

Mr. Di Maio, a member of the populist Five Star movement, which is skeptical of the European Union and Mr. Macron's more internationalist views, set off the Diplomatic spat with France when he said that Mr. Macron "first lectures us, then continues to finance public debt with the money with which he exploits Africa," accorDing to ANSA, the Italian press agency.

But the currency, its history and the issues around it have had little to do with the debate over African migration to Europe until now. So what is the C.F.A. franc and how Did it come to be at the center of Diplomatic Discord?

#4861408 at 2019-01-22 16:46:46 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6206: Great Economic Story Edition

from last bread. Feels NOTABLE.

https://youtu.be/tmn4_dcLmAo

Italy's Deputy Prime Minister is spittin' fire today. Glad he is exposing the elephant in the room.

'France never stopped colonizing Africa' - Italy's deputy PM

Eyebrow-raising remarks from #Italy's deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio, in which he blamed #France for the migrant crisis, have reportedly earned the country's ambassador to France a summons to explain the comments. READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/9mqc

#4860577 at 2019-01-22 15:29:38 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6205: Quick Bake Edition

https://youtu.be/tmn4_dcLmAo

Italy's Deputy Prime Minister is spittin' fire today. Glad he is exposing the elephant in the room.

'France never stopped colonizing Africa' - Italy's deputy PM

Eyebrow-raising remarks from #Italy's deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio, in which he blamed #France for the migrant crisis, have reportedly earned the country's ambassador to France a summons to explain the comments. READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/9mqc

#4712040 at 2019-01-11 17:28:10 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6013: RIP Natalie Corona Edition

Autostrade executives guilty of manslaughter in 2013 motorway accident, CEO acquitted

Three managers at Autostrade per l'Italia, and three former managers, were found guilty of manslaughter on Friday over the deaths of 40 people in a 2013 accident on one of the company's motorways, while CEO Giovanni Castellucci was acquitted.

The guilty verDicts by an Italian judge could open the door to potential damages suits against Autostrade, which is also under investigation after a bridge it operated collapsed in the Italian city of Genoa last August, killing 43 people.

The acquittal of Castellucci rekindled criticism against Autostrade, the motorways arm of Benetton-controlled infrastructure group Atlantia (ATL.MI), from the Italian government. Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, in a post on his Facebook page, called the verDict on Castellucci, who is also CEO of Atlantia, "incomprehensible" and reiterated that the government wants to withdraw Autostrade's motorway concessions in Italy.

https://reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1P5198?

#4682721 at 2019-01-09 19:20:11 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #5975: #FlyRodFly Edition

France warns Italy over supporting yellow vest movement

Tensions increased between Paris and Rome this Tuesday as Italy showed support for the yellow vest movement.

Luigi Di Maio, Deputy Premier and Labour and Industry Minister said "Macron compared our government to leprosy!" in response to being told to "butt out" by the Minister of French European Affairs, Nathalie Loiseau.

Both Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, have given their backing to the yellow vest movement with Di Maio saying his 5-Star Movement (M5S) was 'ready to provide support to the Yellow Vests', and later responDing to Loiseau "Maybe she is forgetting that her president, (Emmanuel) Macron), compared us to leprosy when talking about our government."

Loiseau responded by saying the French government would raise the issue with Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi.

"We speak often, about many things, we'll talk about this too. The priority of every government is to take care of the well-being of its citizens, so I think that the well-being of the Italian people is the priority of the Italian government. I don't think dealing with the yellow vests has anything to do with the well-being of the Italian people".

A spokesperson for Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker gave support to the French Government saying, "The European Commission supports President Macron and the French authorities, who have our confidence to put into practice the programme the president was elected on"

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/01/france-warns-italy-over-supporting-yellow-vest-movement/

#4613289 at 2019-01-05 20:57:59 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #5885: MIRROR Edition

"The party is over for the left-wing mayors who benefited from migrant business" - Italy's Salvini

Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini stated Friday that the migrant and security decree he put together was a state law and must be followed. This is in the midst of the rebellion of some ten of 8,000 mayors, one of whom is Palermo's Leoluca Orlando.

The mayors opposed to the decree say it unfairly strips asylum seekers of rights. Their enquiries to DiGOS resulted in a DiGOS security police visit to Palermo's registry office after the Sicilian capital's police chief denied their move.

"They asked us what happens when we want to regularise the position of an asylum seeker and what procedure we are following," accorDing to clerks account to reporters. DiGOS police allegedly enquired of the registrars of Orlando's rejection fo the security degree alleging it breaches migrants' Constitutional rights.

Palermo police chief has said the reports were "devoid of all foundations" while Deputy Premier and Labour and Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio has backed Interior Minister Salvini on the security decree, reminDing any members of the government suffering "unease" over the decree should remember that they voted for it. Di Maio referred to the protest from the leftwing mayors as a "political boutade".

Interior Minister Salvini explains that the decree is now State law signed by President Sergio Matteralla.

"There's no row, there's a State law, signed by the president of the republic and applied by 99% of mayors," he said.

"There are ten mayors who are protesting out of 8,000 across Italy," Salvini said explaining that the 'party is over' for the leftwing mayors who allegedly benefited from migrant business.

"With the (Democratic Party) it was chaos and clandestine migrants, with the League it is order and respect," he said. "Certain mayors look back fondly on the good old times of immigration, but for them too the party is over!".

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/01/the-party-is-over-for-the-left-wing-mayors-who-benefited-from-migrant-business-italys-salvini/

#4147037 at 2018-12-04 14:55:02 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #5280: Bread With Wings Edition

Italy Police Arrest Mafia's Alleged New Mob Boss in Sicily

PALERMO, Italy-Italian police have arrested the suspected new head of the Sicilian mafia and 45 other alleged mobsters in a major blow to organized crime on the MeDiterranean island, the government said on Dec. 4.

"There is no more room for this type of scum in Italy," Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on Instagram.

The previous boss of bosses, Salvatore "Toto" Riina, Died in prison last year after spenDing almost a quarter of a century behind bars for ordering dozens of murders, incluDing those of two of Italy's most celebrated anti-mob prosecutors.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/italy-police-arrest-mafias-alleged-new-mob-boss-in-sicily_2730072.html

#4050969 at 2018-11-27 20:39:16 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #5155: General Morons Edition

For a brief moment on Tuesday, it looked as if the populists running Italy's government had finally blinked in their monthslong budget standoff with the European Commission. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who is effectively running Italy's government along with fellow Deputy PM Luigi Di Maio, suggested that Italy could back off its 2.4% deficit target, so long as all of the fiscal stimulus promised by their government could be preserved.

But after meeting Monday night with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to Discuss the country's response to the Commission's unprecedented rejection of Italy's budget (as well as its decision to recommend an "Excessive Deficit Procedure") Salvini and Di Maio clarified on Tuesday that any reduction in the deficit target would be minimal - 20 or 40 basis points on the outside, keeping it well above the Commission's recommendation for a 0.8% deficit. For Italian bondholders and those who own Italian bank shares, this is certainly unwelcome news, evidenced by a flattening yield curve on Tuesday as bonds reversed some of their gains from the day before.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-27/eu-delegates-reportedly-approve-plan-levy-billions-euros-fines-against-italy
Notables

#3961775 at 2018-11-19 18:33:25 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #5040: Resolute Edition

Italians First! 'If Italy is harmed, we will reject the eurozone budget' - Interior Minister Salvini

Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Monday Discussed the eurozone budget proposal. The ever rising in popularity, Matteo Salvini, says if Italy is harmed, they will reject the eurozone budget.

The French-German proposal seems to do just that and as such, Italy will reject it. Italy and Brussels have been in what can only be described as a showdown over Italy's 2019 budget draft.

The European Commission has rejected the draft whilst Italy has dug in their heels refusing the change it.

In late October when the EC demanded changes to the draft, Premier Giuseppe Conte said "the critical opinion of the Commission was in the air, we decided to elaborate a budget that rejects austerity and embraces growth."

Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and also labour and industry minister also said in October that "it's the first budget that the EU doesn't like. I'm not surprised: it's the first Italian budget that was written in Rome and not in Brussels".

Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini at that time also said that "they're not attacking a government, but a people. They are things that make Italians even more irritated and then some people complain that the European Union is at the lowest point of its popularity.

"We're going forward with a smile, the Italians are asking that of us," said Salvini. Today League party leader Salvini rejected the budget proposal stating: "If it damages Italy, as seems to be the case, obviously it will not have our support".

https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/11/italians-first-if-italy-is-harmed-we-will-reject-the-eurozone-budget-interior-minister-salvini/

#3938851 at 2018-11-17 13:55:44 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #5010: Nancy, Nancy, Nancy Edition

60% Of Italians Think EU Is Bad For Italy

If the European Commission does levy billions of fines against the Italian government (or enforce some other punishment), some "60 million Italians will rise up" against the trade bloc - or at least that's what a clearly frustrated Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini told a group of Italian reporters following reports that the Commission could move to punish Italy as soon as next week.

The Italian people, Salvini added, would never accept those penalties, accorDing to a report in Italy's ANSA newswire. And accorDing to the latest polling, there's more than a little truth to that.

As the 27 EU members who aren't the UK brace for the inevitable fallout for what increasingly looks to be a bumpy Brexit, one shocking poll revealed that 60% of Italians feel that their country has been mistreated by the European Union. If accurate, that's several percentage points higher than the percentage of Britons who voted to leave the EU back in 2016.

AccorDing to Express, pollsters ColDiretti and Ixè found that some 43% of Italians believe that Brussels' economic policies were designed by stronger economies with little concern for weaker EU members. And fittingly enough, one of Italians' biggest concerns about the EU and its unfair treatment of Italy stems from policies related to agriculture.

Two-thirds of Italians believe that the EU's policies on food damage products made in Italy and only 10 percent believe the Italian agri-food sector is benefitting from EU choices.

A spokesperson for ColDiretti said: "The clear majority of Italians therefore believe that community regulation and the recent choices regarDing international treaties are not adequate to guarantee quality, safety but also respect for the gastronomical traDitions of Italy."

But the Dissatisfaction runs deeper than food.

Italians expressed their frustration with Europe when they voted for the League and Five Star Movement during the March elections. That vote, and the rising popularity enjoyed by both parties, represented what many believed to be a clear mandate: To shake up a relationship with Brussels that was no longer working for Italians.

Italy, Index poll:

LEGA-ENF: 33%
M5S-EFDD: 26%
PD-S&D: 18%
FI-EPP: 7%
FDi-ECR: 4%
LeU-S&D: 3%
+E-ALDE: 2%

Field work: unrevealed
Sample size: unrevealed pic.twitter.com/BRfxPorzk9
- Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) November 16, 2018

On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio told reporters in Rome that the EU is asking Italy "for a blood and tears budget," accorDing to Bloomberg.

"It is unbelievable that they don't understand our reality."

But the intensity of Italians' anger toward the EU has apparently been lost on the European Commission. In comments that sounded lie they were meant to aggravate the situation, EC Vice President ValDis Dombrovskis warned in an interview with an Italian paper that Italy had defied the EU with its irresponsible fiscal policies, and threatened to sanction the country for its reckless spenDing.

Meanwhile, Italy's leaders have insisted that abandoning plans for fiscal stimulus would be like committing "suicide."

Disillusionment is particularly high among young Italians, who still struggle with high unemployment and other social ills. Support for leaving the bloc is much higher among young Italians when compared with young Europeans in general.

And as Albert Edwards explains, the EU's budget rules have consistently seen Italy run a budget surplus, keeping fiscal conDitions tighter than they would otherwise be (the growth in Italian debt actually slowed after it joined the euro). Edwards compared these rules to a "fiscal straightjacket."

Which goes back full circle to the austerity being imposed upon Italy by the EU: it is this fiscal straitjacket that the Italian government has been forced to wear over the last decade that has become intolerable to the Italian electorate (see chart below showing persistent large primary surpluses) accorDing to Edwards, who notes that "it was only a matter of time before they broke free, but to be honest I am surprised it has taken so long for this confrontation with the EC to occur."

The degree to which this tightening has occurred can be seen in cyclically adjusted government spenDing, which suggests that the country's fiscal impulse has actually weakened since Italy joined the eurozone.




https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-16/shocking-poll-shows-60-italians-think-eu-bad-italy

#3833291 at 2018-11-10 15:08:54 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #4872 Weekends are for Shitposting Edition

EU heaDing for euro CRISIS as Italy budget CANNOT be stopped 'Italy can't beat the market'

THE EU is powerless to block Italy's deficit-busting budget - meaning the showdown between Brussels and Rome is likely to escalate to the point where it triggers a market crisis, a financial analyst has warned.

But Vitor Constancio has warned the anti-establishment coalition of Lega's Matteo Salvini and Five Star Movement's Luigi Di Maio they "cannot beat the market".

Italy has been on a collision course with the EU ever since unveiling budget plans to run a budget deficit amounting to 2.4 percent of GDP, which would amount to roughly almost £40 billion (?44 billion).

The proposals do not exceed the three percent ceiling set out in EU rules, but Italy had previously pledged to the cut the deficit significantly to reduce its mammoth debt, which is approaching ?2.5 trillion.

Mr Constancio, the European Central Bank's financial stability chief, said the situation was extremely Difficult to resolve because the EU were effectively powerless to compel Italy to change its plans.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1043108/EU-italy-debt-budget-crisis-italy-league-euro-eurozone

#3543694 at 2018-10-20 18:16:46 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #4495 Attacks Will Intensify (Example, the op to Kill Khashoggi) Edition

Italy approves final budget draft yet vows Dialogue with EU

By Nicole Winfield?|?AP
October 20 at 1:40 PM
ROME - Italy's government vowed Saturday to engage in constructive talks with the European Union as it still gave final approval to a rule-busting budget and brushed off a ratings downgrade triggered by its higher-than-expected deficit targets.

Premier Giuseppe Conte said the budget plan was definitively approved by all forces at an emergency cabinet meeting Saturday that was called to respond to the EU concerns and resolve an internal government squabble.

Conte said Italy was "available for constructive Dialogue" with the EU in the coming weeks.

But 5-Star Leader Luigi Di Maio and League leader Matteo Salvini inDicated little room for substantive changes to the budget, with Di Maio saying: "We repeated our positions."

The European Commission has warned Italy that its higher-than-expected budget deficit targets represent an unprecedented deviation from EU budget rules. The government has until midday Monday to respond to EU concerns….

https:// www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/italy-approves-final-budget-draft-yet-vows-Dialogue-with-eu/2018/10/20/349d2970-d48f-11e8-a4db-184311d27129_story.html?utm_term=.26f2ce1bd679

#3543689 at 2018-10-20 18:15:45 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #4495 Attacks Will Intensify (Example, the op to Kill Khashoggi) Edition

Italy won't back down on deficit plans despite EU pressure

Alvise Armellini Oct 20, 2018

Rome (dpa) - Italy will not tame its spenDing plans in response to EU criticism and a rating downgrade on its debt, deputy premier and Five Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio said Saturday.

"I think I can speak on behalf of the whole government when I deny any kind of reconsideration of the 2.4 [per-cent-of-GDP deficit target]," Di Maio said before a cabinet meeting in Rome.

Ministers Discussed how to respond to a Thursday letter from the European Commission, in which it warned Italy against an "unprecedented" deviation from eurozone budget Discipline rules.

Italy's public debt already stands at more than 130 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), one of the highest levels in the world, only second to Greece in the eurozone.

"We want to explain how and why we have designed this budget," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said after the cabinet, promising a "constructive Dialogue" with the EU, but ruling out major changes.

Italy was expected to reply to Brussels by noon [1000 GMT] on Monday.

Rome's ruling populist parties are set on raising public borrowing to fund tax, welfare and pension giveaways, and stimulate a flagging economy with extra government spenDing.

Such plans have led to a late Friday decision by Moody's creDit ratings agency to cut the rating for Italy's sovereign debt to Baa3, one notch above junk status.

Di Maio and Conte's other deputy premier, League leader Matteo Salvini, insisted they had no desire to take Italy out of the EU or the euro, but both said the bloc's rules should change.

"We will respond to Moody's with a big smile," Di Maio said, while Salvini said the government would solDier on "despite rating agencies, European commissioners and some internal misunderstanDing."… more here

http:// www.dpa-international.com/topic/italy-won-t-back-deficit-plans-despite-eu-pressure-181020-99-456747

#3476897 at 2018-10-14 21:39:25 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #4409: NBC Admits Error, Pigs Fly Edition

Italy Declares War on Merkel and the EU

If there were ever any doubts that the leaders of the Euroskeptic coalition that now runs Italy has a plan to defy the European Union its proposed budget should quell them. Both Deputy Prime Ministers, Luigi Di Maio of Five Star Movement and Matteo Salvini of The League, were adamant about locking horns with European Union leadership over all issues of sovereignty between now and May's European Parliamentary elections.

Their budget proposal which included both tax cuts and universal income blew past the EU budget limit of 2.0% of GDP, coming in at 2.4%. It has put their Finance Minister, Giovanni Tria, in a Difficult position because Tria doesn't want to negotiate this budget with Brussels, preferring a less confrontational, read more pro-EU, approach.

Salvini and Di Maio, however, have other plans. And since I began covering this story last year on my blog, I've said that it was imperative that Salvini force the issue of the Troika's demands - the EU, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - back down their throats on debt restructuring/forgiveness.

What I meant then, and I was focused on Salvini's emergence as the leader of this fight, was that Salvini and Italy, because they are more than technically insolvent, have all the leverage in the negotiations. The size of their outstanDing debt and the liabilities existent on the balance sheets of banks across Europe, most notably the nearly $1 trillion in TARGET 2 liabilities, are something Juncker, Draghi, Merkel and Christine LaGarde at the IMF simply cannot ignore.

But, to do this Salvini and now Di Maio have to make a good faith effort to negotiate a good deal for Italy with Brussels, Berlin and the IMF. This is why the budget squeaked past the 2.0% limit and then they walked it back to 2.0% but with provisions they knew would anger the EU finance ministers.

The point of this is to push Brussels and paint them as the bad guys to shift public sentiment back towards an Italeave position. Italy's problems are not solvable with Germany holDing the purse strings for all the EU countries.

So, the first prong of their assault on the power structure of the EU is this, challenge them on their budget while making strong statements to the rest of Europe that they are not looking to exit the euro. If they do, it will be Germany forcing that situation.

The other prong of the assault is to remake the EU from within, which Salvini has openly stated is one of his goals.

It started more than a month ago when he met with Hungarian President Viktor Orban who agreed on a strategy of creating a 'League of Leagues' to unite the opposition to the current technocratic rule on the European Commission.

They were clear then that the goal was to wrest control of the European Commission Presidency from the coalition backing current President Jean-Claude Juncker.

With the rise in the polls of Euroskeptic parties across Europe, Salvini and Orban can drive real change in the structure of the parties within the European Parliament. The European People's Party, which Orban's Fidesz party is a member of, is vulnerable to losing its senior position in any coalition because of the huge change in Italy's electoral make-up along with that in Austria with the less raDical Sebastian Kurz.

But, the big swing is on the table in Germany. Alternate for Germany (AfD) is now pushing up towards 20% nationally and the next hurdle for its growth is this weekend's Bavarian state elections. If AfD out polls the Greens and denies the CSU a path to a coalition government without them then that could have spillover effects for Angela Merkel.

The latest polls have AfD averaging around 11% versus a strong push up to 18% by the Greens. The CSU has collapsed to just 35%. How accurate these polls are are anyone's guess at this point, but given recent history I would not be surprised to see AfD outperform their polling numbers on Sunday.

http://theduran.com/italy-declares-war-on-merkel-and-the-eu/

#3464402 at 2018-10-13 17:38:42 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #4393: A Week Of Great Rallies Edition

'Vampire burial': Research team unearths 'extremely eerie & weird' ancient Roman grave

If there were ever any doubts that the leaders of the Euroskeptic coalition that now runs Italy has a plan to defy the European Union its proposed budget should quell them. Both Deputy Prime Ministers, Luigi Di Maio of Five Star Movement and Matteo Salvini of The League, were adamant about locking horns with European Union leadership over all issues of sovereignty between now and May's European Parliamentary elections.

The Discovery of a 10-year-old child's remains at an ancient Roman site in Italy is "extremely eerie and weird" evidence of "vampire burials," where steps were taken to prevent the deceased rising from the dead.

The skeletal remains, uncovered by a team of archaeologists from Italy, the University of Arizona, and Stanford University, incorporated a rock intentionally placed inside the child's mouth. Researchers believe the stone was part of a funeral ritual designed to contain Disease - and the body itself - of the child who was possibly infected with malaria.

"I've never seen anything like it. It's extremely eerie and weird," said UA archaeologist David Soren, who has overseen archaeological excavations since 1987. "Locally, they're calling it the 'Vampire of Lugnano.'"

The fascinating Discovery was made on the site of an abandoned Roman villa that was turned into a cemetery in the mid-fifth century, to hold all the babies and children that succumbed to a deadly malaria outbreak. It's called La Necropoli dei Bambini, or the Cemetery of the Babies.

The Discovery of a 10-year-old, whose age was determined by dental development but whose sex is unknown, was surprising for many reasons - one being that they are significantly older than other children buried at the site.

Until now, it was believed that the cemetery only held infants, toddlers and unborn fetuses as previous excavations of more than 50 burials found a three-year-old girl (also found with stones weighing down her hands and feet) to be the oldest child. However, sections of the cemetery have yet to be excavated so it's possible more older kids will be Discovered.

"Given the age of this child and its unique deposition, with the stone placed within his or her mouth, it represents, at the moment, an anomaly within an already abnormal cemetery," said Excavation Director David Pickel. "This just further highlights how unique the infant - or now, rather, child - cemetery at Lugnano is."

Pickel says the Discovery could provide an unprecedented insight into the devastating malaria epidemic 1,500 years ago, as well as the community's response to it. Previous excavations have found infants buried beside raven talons, toad bones, and bronze cauldrons filled with ash and the remains of puppies that appear to have been sacrificed - all historically associated with witchcraft and magic.

https://www.rt.com/news/441155-vampire-burial-child-italy/

#3329203 at 2018-10-04 15:54:22 (UTC+1)
Research General #4218: Stunningly and Totally Qualified Edition

KEK - I love that guy

Salvini outed EU Juncker as an alcoholic
"He should drink two glasses of water before opening his mouth "

Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini threatened to sue after Jean-Claude Juncker's comments caused a knock-on effect in the markets.

Juncker, the unelected despot, expressed 'concern' about the Italian government's proposed budget, which is a Direct threat to the euro, likening Italy to Greece.

Jean-Claude's irresponsible comments sent the yield on Italian benchmark bonds to a four-and-a-half year high, 3.4 per cent, whilst shares in Italian banks dropped. Matteo said: "The European commission president Juncker, by equating Italy with Greece, sends the spread [gap]crazy. He could have spared us that."

His hostility was evident as Salvini said of Juncker: "He should drink two glasses of water before opening his mouth, and stop spreaDing non-existent threats. Or we'll ask him for damages."

The Lega leader called out Brussels' exaggeration of the impact of Rome's planned 2.4 per cent budget shortfall for the next three years. Explaining that the rising cost of financing Italy's debts was the fault of EU officials spooking investors and increasing the gap, also known as spread, between Italian and German borrowing costs.

Further saying that such comments were a deliberate way of hitting his government: "The words and threats of Juncker and other European bureaucrats continue to make the spread rise, with the aim of attacking the government and the Italian economy."

Salvini's coalition partner, Deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio, backed his ally's uncompromising line to set a budget that could push Italy's dept to a GDP ratio higher than last year's. Di Maio stated: "We are not turning back from that 2.4% target, that has to be clear ... We will not backtrack by a millimetre."

The 'New Europe', anti-establishment forces are redefining the EU. What happens now will be determined by how hard the establishment Dig in their heels to challenge it, but Europe is definitely changing.

sauce: https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/10/italian-interior-minister-hits-out-at-eus-juncker-he-should-drink-two-glasses-of-water-before-opening-his-mouth/

#3213888 at 2018-09-27 19:45:29 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #4069: God Bless Justice Kavanaugh Edition

Italy Defies Europe, Agrees On 2019 Budget Deficit At 2.4% Of GDP

Despite the resistance of Italy's finance minister Giovanni Tria who had pushed back against demands by the League and the Five Star Movement to push Italy's budget deficit above 2% in 2019, demanDing a hard stop at 1.6%, moments ago the Italian budget negotiations reached a successful conclusion, when Italy's Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, and League leader, said that agreement had been reached on the 2019 deficit to be at 2.4% of GDP, as he and Di Maio demanded in recent days to fund what had emerged as key sticking point, namely Universal Basic Income for the people.

Commenting on the outcome, Italy's other deputy premier Luigi Di Maio, said he had succeeded in a "budget for the people" adDing that the budget cancels poverty thanks to "citizen's income," at a cost of ?10 billion. He added that other measures include reform of job centers, pension reform, and a ?1.5 billion fund for victims of bank crises.

Salvini and Di Maio said that Italy's government is united on the budget goal, although it was unclear if Finmin Tria would stay on after his "fiscally prudent" position had been rejected.

Attention now turns to how Brussels will respond as it will certainly not be excited. Ahead of the decision, EU Commissioner Moscovici was quoted in la Stampa, saying that Italy's deficit must stay below 2%, while the final number is 0.4% above this.

For now, there has been little reaction in assets, with Italian debt yields unchanged on the news after getting hit earlier, while EURUSD Dipped slightly and continuing to trade near session lows.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-27/italy-defies-europe-agrees-2019-budget-deficit-24-gdp

#3180096 at 2018-09-25 17:25:04 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #4025: Embracing the Doctrine of Patriotism Edition

Salvini Migration Decree Bans Humanitarian Residency Permits, Strips Terrorists of Citizenship

Populist Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has released a sweeping migration decree that will see residency permits granted for humanitarian reasons scrapped and increased funDing for deportation centres.

The new migrant decree, which was met with unanimous approval in the Italian cabinet, combines aspects of migration policy along with other security provisions to tackle far-left occupier activists and the Italian mafia, Il Giornale reports.

One of the main points of the decree is the scrapping of residency permits for humanitarian reasons to asylum seekers who do not qualify under the normal asylum rules.

The decree justifies getting rid of the residency permits saying that they are used much more liberally in Italy than in other countries and is set to replace the permits with new ones that will cover migrants who have specific health problems, those fleeing natural Disasters in their home countries, and civil merit permits that can be converted into work visas.

Since promising to deport up to 500,000 illegal migrants earlier this year during the Italian election campaign, Salvini has worked on improving the country's deportation system.

The new decree will see ?500,000 ($590,000) put into a repatriation fund this year for voluntary deportations, with the amount increasing to 1.5 million euros in 2019 and 2020.

The government will also increase the scope of forced repatriation centres and migrants can be held in these new centres for up to 180 days - double the previous 90-day limit.

On the security side of the decree, migrants with Italian citizenship who engage in terrorist activities could have their citizenship revoked and measures against the mafia could see organised criminal groups clamped down upon, as Salvini plans to increase staff at the National Agency for the administration and destination of assets seized and confiscated from organised crime (ANBSC).

The decree also targets far-left occupy activists as well as Roma squatters by granting police more powers to counter squatting incluDing the ability to wiretap those thought to be involved in occupations.

Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the Five Star Movement and Salvini's coalition partner, was somewhat cautious on the decree saying: "There are points (in the bill) that are not in the government programme and so will be Discussed in parliament."

The new policy comes after Salvini blocked migrant rescue ships from Italian ports and as a result, has greatly increased in popularity throughout the country with polling data showing his party, the League, consistently the most popular in Italy.

https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/09/25/salvini-migration-decree-bans-humanitarian-residency-strips-terrorists-citizenship/

#3035017 at 2018-09-15 18:54:32 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #3840: Compressed Bread

Five Star Movement Proposes Stripping Mainstream MeDia's Public FunDing

The Italian anti-establishment Five Star Movement have set their sights on the mainstream meDia, proposing to cut public funDing to various outlets and create a new Netflix-like subscription service to give Italians access to all newspapers.

The proposal is being championed by Five Star Movement politician Vito Crimi, who specifically targetted former Italian prime minister and meDia baron Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the Forza Italia party, declaring that "for Silvio Berlusconi, the easy ride is over," Il Giornale reports.

"We are not against the newspapers," Crimi said, adDing: "we only want to remove public funds for publishing, not to eliminate the fund for pluralism."

AccorDing to Crimi, Italian publishers have received as much as three billion euros from the taxpayer since 2003, and he claims they have done little in return for it.

While removing public funDing may cost newspapers across the country, Crimi said he was also interested in putting a cap on television advertising, in the hope that advertising money would be reDistributed among television and print meDia.

Italian Minister of Economic Development and M5S leader Luigi Di Maio also attacked the mainstream meDia this week, saying he gets all of his news online through social meDia and adDing that comments on his Facebook and Instagram pages "are worth much more than all the eDitorials of the day."

"To inform myself, I do not read Italian newspapers, they only propaganDise. I read specialised articles, foreign newspapers, bloggers, dossiers to inform myself about the problems related to my activity as a minister," Di Maio said.

"Once, the newspapers were a cross-section of public opinion, they had a bit of the popular feeling that was breathed in the streets and bars. This component has been lost and it is for this reason that they lose sales," he added.

Trust in the mainstream meDia and the "system" in general has declined in Italy in recent years, with polling data from this year revealing that only 45 percent trusted the mainstream meDia.

The figures have been similar in other countries like Sweden where a survey in 2016 found that that up to half of respondents avoided mainstream meDia entirely and got their news from alternative news outlets online.

Sweden's leftist government has taken the opposite approach to the Five Star Movement, however, having created a multi-million kronor fund to give to mainstream outlets to fight "fake news."
https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/09/15/five-star-movement-proposes-stripping-mainstream-meDias-public-funDing/

#2738230 at 2018-08-26 02:19:24 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #3458: We're Going To Hear His Name All Week Edition

Italy Preparing to Limit Contributions to EU Long-Term Budget Over Migrant Issue

ROME (Sputnik) - Italy is getting ready to cut its contributions to the EU budget for the upcoming years over Europe's failure to reach agreement on the migrant issue, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Saturday.

On Friday, the European Commission called an informal meeting on migration with the participation of senior officials from the national governments of 12 EU member states, incluDing Germany, Greece, France and Spain, after Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said Italy would may reconsider Rome's contributions to the EU budget if other countries Did not accept the nearly 200 migrants who had been saved in the MeDiterranean by the Italian Diciotti coast guard ship. The meeting, however, Did not yield results.

"I wrote yesterday that we would draw conclusions. I will clarify: we are working on introducing limitations in relation to Italy's joining the long-term financial plan which is being Discussed now. Under such circumstances, Italy does not consider it possible to join the budget that envisions such an inconsistent social policy," Conte wrote on Facebook.

Europe has been facing a large influx of migrants since 2015, and although the number of new arrivals has gone down over the last year, the issue of accommodating migrants and refugees remains acute, especially for such countries as Spain, Italy, and Greece, which often serve as the point of first entry into the European Union.

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201808261067475979-italy-eu-contributions-migration/

#2723902 at 2018-08-24 17:17:51 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #3440: We're Having A Lot Of Fun Edition

Italy Migrant Ship Row - Government "Will Not Give ?20 Billion Each Year To The EU" (Video)

The European Commission in Brussels, Belgium called for an urgent meeting after both the Italian Deputy Prime Minister Mr Luigi Di Maio and the Italian Interior Minister Mr Matteo Salvini, the de facto populist rulers of the fourth largest economy in Europe, declared that their government would suspend funDing to the EU unless other member states agreed to take in migrants being held on a coastguard ship in Sicily, the Diciotti (see our related coverage).

https://www.thegoldwater.com/news/34942-Italy-Migrant-Ship-Row-Government-Will-Not-Give-20-Billion-Each-Year-To-The-EU-Video

#2716097 at 2018-08-23 22:25:58 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #3430: Patriots Fight Edition

Italy Threatens To Stop EU FunDing Unless Other States Accept Refugees

Europe's refugee mess is back with a bang.

On Thursday, out of the blue, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio threatened to stop financial contributions to the European Union next year unless other states agreed to take in migrants being held on a coastguard ship in Sicily. The Italian's ultimatum comes less two months after Europe triumphantly announced a "vaguely worded" deal on how to resolve the continent's migrant influx.

"If tomorrow at the meeting of the European Commission nothing is decided on the reDistribution of migrants and the Diciotti ship, I and the entire Five Star Movement are not willing to give 20 billion to the European Union," Di Maio said in a video posted on his Facebook page.

He echoed statements by Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, who has refused to allow 177 migrants to leave the Italian coastguard ship Ubaldo Diciotti, which is docked in the Sicilian port of Catania. While Italian prosecutors opened an investigation into the detention of the migrants and 29 children were allowed to Disembark, Salvini still won't allow the rest of the people to come ashore and has attacked the EU for its "cowardly silence."

Salvini described those aboard as "illegal immigrants," and said they won't be allowed to step foot on Italian soil. Instead, he insisted fellow European Union nations take in some of the asylum-seekers.

"Italy's no longer Europe's refugee camp," he tweeted. "Upon my authorization, no one is Disembarking from the Diciotti."

Salvini, who is also interior minister, was defiant in the face of a criminal probe into possible kidnapping charges for forcing the migrants to remain on the vessel. The chief prosecutor from the Agrigento court, Luigi Patronaggio, on Wednesday boarded the Diciotti and said afterwards he had opened a probe against "unknown" persons for holDing the migrants against their will.

"There's a court that is investigating whether those illegally on board the ship have been kidnapped," Salvini said in a raDio interview.

"I'm not unknown. My name is Matteo Salvini… I'm the Interior Minister and I think it is my duty to defend the security of this country's borders."

A public backlash against the arrivals of hundreds of thousands of seaborne newcomers in the past five years - a consequence of policies established by Angela Merkel in 2015 - helped put Di Maio and Salvini into office. Salvini allowed 27 unaccompanied minors off the ship late Wednesday.

* * *

Meanwhile, the European Commission said this week that it is working to find an agreement. Other such deals were found in June and July for ships carrying rescued migrants that docked in both Italy and Malta.

This is not the first time Italy has clashed with Brussels on this issue. In June, Salvini refused to accept the Aquarius boat with its load of 629 migrants. At the time Spain agreed to let the boat dock.

On Wednesday Premier Giuseppe Conte said on Facebook that promises made by EU partners in the past had not been kept. He said only France had taken a few migrants in, while Germany, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Malta, which had previously offered to share some of the burden, were not doing so.

Italy is "waiting for a strong and clear answer from the European institutions and an adequate response from the other European countries," he said.

Following news that Italy has once again broken apart with Brussels over the sensitive issue of how to deal with the ongoing migrant wave, the EURUSD slumped to session lows as the market slowly realizes that - as we said in June - Europe's migrant problem is unsolvable.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-23/italy-threatens-stop-eu-funDing-unless-other-states-accept-refugees

#2715973 at 2018-08-23 22:12:41 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #3430: Patriots Fight Edition

europe ready to implode!

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-23/italy-threatens-stop-eu-funDing-unless-other-states-accept-refugees


Italy Threatens To Stop EU FunDing Unless Other States Accept Refugees
Profile picture for user Tyler Durden
by Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/23/2018 - 18:04
0
SHARES

Europe's refugee mess is back with a bang.

On Thursday, out of the blue, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio threatened to stop financial contributions to the European Union next year unless other states agreed to take in migrants being held on a coastguard ship in Sicily. The Italian's ultimatum comes less two months after Europe triumphantly announced a "vaguely worded" deal on how to resolve the continent's migrant influx.

"If tomorrow at the meeting of the European Commission nothing is decided on the reDistribution of migrants and the Diciotti ship, I and the entire Five Star Movement are not willing to give 20 billion to the European Union," Di Maio said in a video posted on his Facebook page.

He echoed statements by Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, who has refused to allow 177 migrants to leave the Italian coastguard ship Ubaldo Diciotti, which is docked in the Sicilian port of Catania. While Italian prosecutors opened an investigation into the detention of the migrants and 29 children were allowed to Disembark, Salvini still won't allow the rest of the people to come ashore and has attacked the EU for its "cowardly silence."

Salvini described those aboard as "illegal immigrants," and said they won't be allowed to step foot on Italian soil. Instead, he insisted fellow European Union nations take in some of the asylum-seekers.

"Italy's no longer Europe's refugee camp," he tweeted. "Upon my authorization, no one is Disembarking from the Diciotti."

Salvini, who is also interior minister, was defiant in the face of a criminal probe into possible kidnapping charges for forcing the migrants to remain on the vessel. The chief prosecutor from the Agrigento court, Luigi Patronaggio, on Wednesday boarded the Diciotti and said afterwards he had opened a probe against "unknown" persons for holDing the migrants against their will.

"There's a court that is investigating whether those illegally on board the ship have been kidnapped," Salvini said in a raDio interview.

"I'm not unknown. My name is Matteo Salvini… I'm the Interior Minister and I think it is my duty to defend the security of this country's borders."

A public backlash against the arrivals of hundreds of thousands of seaborne newcomers in the past five years - a consequence of policies established by Angela Merkel in 2015 - helped put Di Maio and Salvini into office. Salvini allowed 27 unaccompanied minors off the ship late Wednesday.

* * *

Meanwhile, the European Commission said this week that it is working to find an agreement. Other such deals were found in June and July for ships carrying rescued migrants that docked in both Italy and Malta.

This is not the first time Italy has clashed with Brussels on this issue. In June, Salvini refused to accept the Aquarius boat with its load of 629 migrants. At the time Spain agreed to let the boat dock.

On Wednesday Premier Giuseppe Conte said on Facebook that promises made by EU partners in the past had not been kept. He said only France had taken a few migrants in, while Germany, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Malta, which had previously offered to share some of the burden, were not doing so.

Italy is "waiting for a strong and clear answer from the European institutions and an adequate response from the other European countries," he said.

Following news that Italy has once again broken apart with Brussels over the sensitive issue of how to deal with the ongoing migrant wave, the EURUSD slumped to session lows as the market slowly realizes that - as we said in June - Europe's migrant problem is unsolvable.

SiDing with his Italian colleagues, Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Thursday after meeting Italian counterpart Enzo Moavero Milanesi that the Italian and Hungarian governments' policies on migration are identical on a multitude of points.

"The Hungarian government cooperates with everybody who seeks to stop illegal migration and prioritizes border protection," Szijjarto told MTI after his meeting.

The position of the new Italian government and the new Italian Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, coincides with the Hungarian government's in many ways, he said. "We agreed that the root causes [of migration] must be addressed … and entering Europe must be done accorDing to European rules."

Hungary maintains that migrants should not be Distributed among EU countries but should be prevented from coming to Europe in the first place.

#2658769 at 2018-08-18 20:24:47 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #3356: Silence Is Qolden

Genoa Bridge Tragedy: MoranDi CEO Apologizes After Viaduct Collapse

ROME (Sputnik) - CEO of Autostrade per l'Italia, which manages and maintains most of Italy's toll roads, incluDing the collapsed MoranDi bridge in the city of Genoa, apologized on Saturday for the tragedy for the first time since it has happened.

A large section of Ponte MoranDi collapsed on Tuesday, with at least 30 cars plunging hundreds of feet to the ground. AccorDing to the latest data, 43 people were killed in the incident. On Wednesday, Italian Minister of Economic Development, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, placed all the responsibility for the bridge collapse on Autostrade per l'Italia. On Friday, Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Danilo Toninelli said that his ministry had officially initiated the procedure for the cancellation of the state's concession agreement with Autostrade per l'Italia.

"I apologize profoundly. I express my grief and closeness to the relatives of the victims, their friends, the Genoese, this is the pain that I carry in my heart," Giovanni Castellucci said during a special press conference in Genoa, which was broadcast live by Italian news channels.

Castellucci assured that Autostrade per l'Italia intended to alleviate the suffering of people whose relatives Died as a result of the collapse of the bridge. He announced that the company was creating a special fund worth "millions of euros" for the tragedy's victims.

He added that the company was ready to begin work on restoring the collapsed bridge.

"It is our primary responsibility to restore this bridge and to resume traffic on it, and we have a project that will allow us to do this within eight months, incluDing the Dismantling and restoration process to get a new steel bridge," Castellucci said.

He reiterated that the company had no information that the collapsed bridge had been in a critical conDition."All the reports that I was acknowledged with said that its conDition was good," he said.

The top manager added that this issue would be the subject of analysis and expertise, which will be held at the request of the prosecutor's office.

This is the first public appearance of Autostrade per l'Italia leadership after the tragedy in Genoa. Until now, Castellucci has been limited to brief statements that "all the work and conDition of the viaduct were under constant surveillance and control," and that "there was no evidence that the bridge was posing threat."

Italy declared a national mourning on Saturday. More than 600 people lost their homes located near the bridge, because they were forced to leave them. Earlier in the day, the state funeral of 18 people, incluDing a nine-year-old boy, who Died as a result of the motorway collapse, was held at one of the premises of the city's fair grounds. Nine people injured in the incident remain in hospitals, eight of them in serious conDition.
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201808181067305047-italy-genoa-bridge-operator-apology/

#2045294 at 2018-07-05 20:20:10 (UTC+1)
Q Research #2580 Shills Gonna Shill Edition

Italian government hails European Parliament's rejection of copyright Directive
By ANSA 5 July 2018

Deputy Premiers Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini both expressed satisfaction on Thursday after the European Parliament (EP) voted to reject a copyright Directive.

The draft law sought to make Internet giants share the money gained from content produced by publishers, broadcasters and artists, but opponents said it was a threat to the freedom of the Internet.

The EP voted against opening talks with the European Commission and the European Council on the proposal and decided to return to the issue in September.

https:// voiceofeurope.com/2018/07/italian-government-hails-european-parliaments-rejection-of-copyright-Directive/

#1960166 at 2018-06-29 19:26:08 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2471: Autismus Maximus

'NGO ships will only see Italy on postcards': Italy's Salvini vows to keep ports closed all summer

No NGO rescue ship carrying migrants will be allowed to dock in an Italian port, the country's interior minister Matteo Salvini has said, following a unanimous decision by EU leaders to review migration policy.

Commenting on the outcome of almost 10 hours of tense Discussion between he 28 European leaders on the pressing issue of migration, Salvini said the agreement was too opaque, and warned that it had better not bypass Italy's interests again.

"NGO rescue ships will only see Italy on postcards," the interior minister told RaDio Capital on Friday, reaffirming that Italy would not yield when it comes to migration.

Dubbed "the Sheriff" in the Italian press, Salvini insisted that whatever was decided during the EU summit would not alter the fact that Italian "ports will remain closed throughout the summer" to all NGO rescue ships that try to dock.

Although migration talks, which concluded only at dawn on Friday, had reportedly left Italian PM Giuseppe Conte satisfied, Salvini insisted that he Did not "believe in words, because until now, it has always been 'viva Europe' at Italy's cost."

With more than 640,000 migrants crossing the MeDiterranean to reach Italian ports since 2014, Italy has become the primary destination for migrants and NGO ships. Interior Minister Salvini and his coalition partner, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, have repeatedly slammed NGOs for being involved in illegal human trafficking.

Although numbers have plummeted dramatically this year, with just 14,500 migrants arriving to date, Salvini vowed to not only stop the influx - but also to proceed with massive deportations.

https://www.rt.com/news/431259-salvini-no-ngo-ships/

#1890507 at 2018-06-24 21:08:00 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2381: "B/c u have seen Me, u have believed" Edition

Italy Says "Arrogant" Macron Risks Becoming "Enemy #1" On Migration, Orders Ships To Halt Refugee Pickups

Italian officials are Digging their heels in over EU migration after League leader and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini branded French President Emmanuel Macron "arrogant" for trying to downplay Europe's migration crisis, while Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said that Macron risks making France Italy's "number one enemy on this emergency" in a Saturday Facebook post.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-06-24/italy-says-arrogant-macron-risks-becoming-enemy-1-migration-orders-ships-halt

#1863610 at 2018-06-22 18:34:44 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2347: What Will Friday Bring? Edition

NOTABLE?
Steve Bannon shitstarter extraorDinaire
also-June doesn't look like it's gonna be any better for Francis

https:// www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-06-20/bannon-salvini-and-powerful-catholic-carDinal-are-gunning-pope-francis
The three conservative Catholics came together earlier this month when Bannon was in Rome to celebrate Italy's new populist coalition government run by Salvini, along with Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. During his visit, Bannon took a side-trip to the 800-year-old Trisulti monastery under development by conservative UK catholic Benjamin Harnwell.

Harnwell runs a conservative Catholic organization, the Dignitatis Humanae Institute - which was "founded to help Christian politicians defend their faith in the public square."


The monastery will host events with speakers like Bannon and Burke and conservative Christian leaders.

…

Harnwell and his organization are an important connection between Bannon and Burke. Harnwell is the one who first introduced the two, accorDing to a New York Times article that is Displayed on Harnwell's website. Bannon spoke at one of Harnwell's' conferences by grainy video link back in 2014 during which he warned that the migration exodus would lead to a rise in populism. Burke was the keynote speaker the year before. -Daily Beast

Burke, meanwhile, is one of the pope's harshest critics - openly challenging Francis' ability to lead the church while campaigning for limitations on papal powers. Burke has openly called Islam a threat, and is an open supporter of President Trump.

Burke has been getting closer to Salvini, who visited him this week in Rome. It was not their first meeting. Salvini, meanwhile, closed Italian ports to NGO rescue ships this month - forcing several ships full of asylum seekers to Divert to Spain and France.

#1600521 at 2018-05-31 21:55:19 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2013: Excavations

>>1600429

More detail on new Italian government:

(ANSA) - Rome, May 31 - Law professor Giuseppe Conte got a mandate as premier from President Sergio Mattarella Thursday and said his 18 new ministers, five of them women, would be sworn in Friday afternoon for a "government of change".
Accepting the mandate, he said the new government would work to lift Italian living standards. "We will work intensely to achieve the political objectives anticipated in the (government) contract, we will work with determination to improve the quality of the lives of all the Italians".
The government comes 88 days after the inconclusive March 4 general election and Mattarella said "a complex iteinerary has concluded.".
The government rests on an alliance and government contract between anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio and anti-migrant Euroskeptic League leader Matteo Salvini.
Both will be deputy premiers and hold key ministries: Salvini at interior where he will implement a promised crackdown on undocumented migrants, and Di Maio at a new joint industry and labour ministry where he will roll out a basic income for job seekers and poor families.
Di Maio said "thanks you all, really. The government of change is a reality! We deDicate all this to (late co-founder) Gianroberto Casaleggio. I embrace you all! See you tomorrow!" The M5S said "today is a historic day. The 5-Star Movement is set to govern the country". It urged everyone to celebrate "all together" on Saturday, Republic Day, saying "Luigi Di Maio and all our spokesman (MPs) will be there, in piazza from the Mouth of Truth in Rome at 19:000 to embrace and charge up with the energies we will need to finally change Italy".
Salvini said on Facebook "commitment, consistency, listening, work, patience, good sense, head and heart for the good of Italians. Perhaps we're finally there after so many obstacles, attacks, threats and lies. Thanks for your trust friends, I love you and know that I'll need you".
later at a rally in Sondrio, he said "my commitment is for the security of 60 million Italians. "I will make felt my, our closeness to the forces of law and order, who do not deserve to be fooled by criminals who enter and exit jail every quarter of an hour, and we'll see them left there longer".
Salvini said "open doors in Italy for decent people and a one-way ticket for those who come to Italy to create problems and think they can be maintained for life. 'Go home' will be one of our priorities". He said "I'd like to give a nice cut to those 5 billion euros, that seem a bit much to me" (for migrant reception).
Salvini said "I want to make Italy a protagonist in Europe again. With good manners, without causing confusion, but I'm fed up of governments with cap in hand. We are second to none".
He said "the mafia has always made us and will always make us sick, wherever there is injustice I will try to be there with a team. I ask you to be close to us because you can't do anything on your own".
salvini said "I will be the minister of everyone" and the new government is a "government of good will, of decent people without debts to anyone. I will be in an office a lot but as much as possible among you, among people, And may God preserve us".

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2018/05/31/conte-gets-manadte-for-govt-of-change_e1b49b53-5e12-4679-a10c-f291b9617a58.html

#1600429 at 2018-05-31 21:43:33 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2012: The Great Awakening

>>1598198 (bread #2010)

MIGA - Make Italy Great Again! Let the people be heard!

(ANSA) - Rome, May 31 - Law professor Giuseppe Conte received a government-formation mandate from President Sergio Mattarella Friday night and presented his list of ministers, who will be sworn in at 16:00 Friday.

Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio and anti-migrant Euroskeptic League leader Matteo Salvini earlier agreed to form a new government with Conte as premier.

President Sergio Mattarella called Conte at 21:00 Thursday to hand him a second government-formation mandate, after his first effort foundered over an anti-euro economy ministry pick.
The two leaders said after talks Thursday that "an accord has been reached for an M5S-League government with Giuseppe Conte as premier".
They said earlier there were the "conDitions" for a political government.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2018/05/31/conte-to-get-pm-mandate-for-m5s-league-govt_c1661048-40e1-422b-b95b-84300ad2d175.html

#1599994 at 2018-05-31 20:45:38 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2012: The Great Awakening

>>1599759
>ITALY IS NOT FREE YET
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is the ROTHSCHILD mouthpiece The GuarDian

If Italy were FREE, I wouldn't expect to READ it here

Here is a FREE PRESS article out of the UK

55 mins ago

Italy heads for populist government after months of stalemate

Giuseppe Conte

Italy is advancing swiftly towards a populist government on its second try after 5-Star Movement and League leaders announced a compromise deal.

The leaders of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the right-wing League announced a deal aimed at overcoming the president's objections.

The premier-designate tapped at the beginning of the week to head an interim government of technocrats has stepped aside.

President Sergio Mattarella called a meeting with the populist's pick: a law professor whose attempt to form a government failed four days ago.

Political neophyte Giuseppe Conte, who skipped teaching a class at the University of Florence to return to Rome, was summoned to meet Mattarella at the presidential palace Thursday night.

After months of stalemate followed an inconclusive parliamentary election in March, the Italian political landscape has shifted into overdrive.

Earlier in the day, the leader of the 5-Star Movement, Luigi Di Maio, and League leader Matteo Salvini canceled other engagements to meet at the parliament.

They issued a statement stating they had achieved "the conDitions for a political government".

In a Facebook message, Mr Salvini said it took "deDication, coherence, listening, patience, good sense, head and heart" to get a second chance while facing "many obstacles, attacks, threats and lies".

Luigi Di Maio5-Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio (Massimo Percossi/ANSA via AP)

The possibility that the 5-Star government and the League could come up with a government acceptable to Italy's president buoyed financial markets, despite their eurosceptic views.

A political government would avoid an early election that investors worry would be seen as a referendum on the euro.

The 5-Stars and League together won a narrow majority in the March 4 election.
Matteo SalviniThe League leader Matteo Salvini (Giuseppe Lami/ANSA via AP)GIUSEPPE LAMI

They presented their proposed Cabinet over the weekend, but Mr Mattarella vetoed their choice of a eurosceptic economy minister, saying the canDidate's views put Italians' savings at risk.

With Mr Salvini unwilling to consider a Different economy minister, the League-5-Star lineup collapsed.

Mr Conte, whom the president had tapped as premier-designate before former International Monetary Fund official Carlo Cottarelli, relinquished his mandate.

After the market tanked at the prospect of a Cottarelli-led technical government and early election, Mr Di Maio came back with a proposal to replace the contested ministerial canDidate, while Mr Salvini said he was not closing any doors.

http://www.freepressseries.co.uk/news/national/16262599.Italy_heads_for_populist_government_after_months_of_stalemate/

#1599759 at 2018-05-31 20:18:21 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2012: The Great Awakening

BAKER== ==ITALY IS NOT FREE YET
>>1599405 lb
Read the whole article please

Italy's faith in the eurozone is set to be tested in fresh elections in the autumn after the president, Sergio Mattarella, installed an interim prime minister to lead a new government after a bitter falling out with the country's populist parties.

The political crisis that has engulfed Rome threatens to bring about another bitter battle over the future of the EU, two years after the UK voted for Brexit. The uncertainty promped a selloff on Italian markets on Monday.

Mattarella, who as president has the power to nominate the head of government and ministers, asked Carlo Cottarelli, a former International Monetary Fund official, to become interim PM after refusing to accept the nomination of Paolo Savona, a Eurosceptic, for the role of finance minister.

Mattarella said appointing Savona, 81, who has called Italy's entry into the euro a "historic mistake", would have risked the confidence of foreign investors and destabilising the country.

Savona had been put forward for the role by the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the League, which had been attempting to form a government. The rejection on Sunday night prompted the resignation of Giuseppe Conte, the two parties' choice to serve as prime minister.

The parties' leaders, Luigi Di Maio of the M5S and Matteo Salvini of the League, expressed outrage at Mattarella's intervention and, in an extraorDinary move, called for a mass mobilisation against the president on 2 June. Di Maio and others called for Mattarella's impeachment, a move almost unheard of in Italy, but he later backed off from the threat.

"I call citizens to mobilise, make yourselves heard, it's important that you do it right now. We will organise peaceful and symbolic demonstrations," Di Maio said. He also called on Italians to drape the Italian flag outside their windows in protest against Mattarella.

https://www.theguarDian.com/world/2018/may/28/italy-president-sergio-mattarella-names-interim-prime-minister-carlo-cottarelli

#1599405 at 2018-05-31 19:34:34 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2011: Populism In Italia Edition

ITALY IS NOT FREE YET
Read the whole article please

Italy's faith in the eurozone is set to be tested in fresh elections in the autumn after the president, Sergio Mattarella, installed an interim prime minister to lead a new government after a bitter falling out with the country's populist parties.

The political crisis that has engulfed Rome threatens to bring about another bitter battle over the future of the EU, two years after the UK voted for Brexit. The uncertainty promped a selloff on Italian markets on Monday.

Mattarella, who as president has the power to nominate the head of government and ministers, asked Carlo Cottarelli, a former International Monetary Fund official, to become interim PM after refusing to accept the nomination of Paolo Savona, a Eurosceptic, for the role of finance minister.

Mattarella said appointing Savona, 81, who has called Italy's entry into the euro a "historic mistake", would have risked the confidence of foreign investors and destabilising the country.

Savona had been put forward for the role by the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the League, which had been attempting to form a government. The rejection on Sunday night prompted the resignation of Giuseppe Conte, the two parties' choice to serve as prime minister.

The parties' leaders, Luigi Di Maio of the M5S and Matteo Salvini of the League, expressed outrage at Mattarella's intervention and, in an extraorDinary move, called for a mass mobilisation against the president on 2 June. Di Maio and others called for Mattarella's impeachment, a move almost unheard of in Italy, but he later backed off from the threat.

"I call citizens to mobilise, make yourselves heard, it's important that you do it right now. We will organise peaceful and symbolic demonstrations," Di Maio said. He also called on Italians to drape the Italian flag outside their windows in protest against Mattarella.

https://www.theguarDian.com/world/2018/may/28/italy-president-sergio-mattarella-names-interim-prime-minister-carlo-cottarelli

#1598198 at 2018-05-31 17:09:11 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2010: Steel And Aluminum Edition

———-IT'S OFFICIAL: ITALY IS FREE——-

My friends, Italy is now officially free. The new populist/sovranist govt was born half an hour ago. EU and globalists Did everything to stop it, they blackmailed our President, tried to stop ministers, everything.

Our new Premier is Patriot Giuseppe Conte (center).
Our heroes are Matteo Salvini (left) and Luigi Di Maio (right), leaders of Lega and 5 Stars.

They were SO SMART, a 4D chess never seen before.
We humble patriots FOUGHT SO HARD on socials, supporting our heroes.

Today Europe is going to get freed from the globalists, a new era is born!

Thanks to Bannon, here in Italy to support the effort. Thanks to Q: I KNEW you were going to help us! Thanks to the God Emperor… I have no words to express my gratitude for what you Did.

Thanks to you all my brothers and sister on this board. You gave me great support and were my joy these months.
Love you greatly. WWG1WGA

… and don't forget to trust the plan! IT WORKS!

#1594734 at 2018-05-31 04:58:13 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2005 POTUS Needs Us United Edition

>>1594673
This financial move, if it is realized, is definitely connected to ongoing intrigue in SauDi Arabia, the current main financial backer of the old petro-dollar. Here, de facto monarch Mohammad bin Salman has not been seen in public since a shoot-out was reported at his palace on April 21, 2018. This move against Salman, who was put in power by Israeli special forces, is definitely linked to attacks on SauDi agent and former CIA head John Brennan, the sources say. Brennan is now being blamed as the source for the entire "Russiagate" witch-hunt against Trump, they say.

"'John Brennan should pop the glass capsule and take the cyanide now,' [Trump confidant] Roger Stone said to Amanda House, deputy political Director of Breitbart News and host of Breitbart News Daily. 'He's the perp who started the entire Russian dossier matter. He's lied about it under oath. He's going to Die in a federal penitentiary.'"

http://treason.news/2018-05-25-roger-stone-former-cia-Director-john-brennan-will-Die-in-a-federal-penitentiary-treason.html

No doubt, stress over the impeDing doom of his protégé Brennan is one reason why 93-year old George Bush Sr. is in the hospital again.

Another blow against the Bush/Nazi faction of the cabal may come soon in the form of a military coup in Brazil, Pentagon sources are saying. Here, a truckers' strike has paralyzed the economy. This is expected to be the trigger for a military coup that will restore former presidents Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva "from Zionist usurpers who seized control of the central bank in 2016," the sources say.

The Zionists also failed in their recent push to derail a peace deal with North Korea by using their agent John Bolton to issue provocative statements. This move was supposed to be coorDinated with an attack in Korea by an Israeli submarine pretenDing to be a North Korean submarine, Pentagon sources say. Instead, however, the Zionists lost yet another submarine near Korea, the sources say.

The battle for the planet earth is also raging in Europe. Here, market-watchers are seeing many obvious signs that a new crisis is coming. While Germany and France are looking increasingly towards Russia and China, the situation to watch is now in Italy and Spain.

Spain and Italy, especially, are going to be big in the news cycle over the coming weeks. To put this situation in perspective, the Italian and Spanish GDPs combined are worth more than $3 trillion, or 16 times the $194 billion GDP of Greece. This means the crisis will be 16 times bigger than the Greek crisis that, by itself, nearly unDid the Euro.

The Italians now have a government that plans to do something about the slow destruction of the Italian economy caused by its participation in the Euro by issuing a new currency to pay for various plans to fix Italy's economy. The old establishment is so upset about the new Italian government that Italian President Sergio Mattarella vetoed their canDidate for Finance Minister because he is opposed to the Euro. The Italian president is supposed to be a figurehead, and this anti-democratic move is going to result in an open attack on the Italian deep state, accorDing to P2 Freemason lodge sources. Italy's Five Star leader Luigi Di Maio said on Sunday that President Sergio Mattarella should be impeached for betraying the state because of his rejection of a eurosceptic as economy minister.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-impeachment/italys-5-star-leader-says-president-should-be-impeached-idUSKCN1IS0S1

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-28/italy-s-establishment-vetoes-the-populists

A comparable thing is likely to happen in Spain because of similar structural problems related to the Euro. These problems can only be solved by these countries either giving up economic sovereignty or else issuing their own currency. The governments in both countries favour issuing new currencies. However, any new currencies in Southern Europe would not only endanger the Euro, they would also open the way for the big Kahuna-a new currency for the United States to replace or cohabit with the no-longer-American U.S. dollar.

In other words, the existing financial paraDigm is likely to face its biggest crisis since the Lehman shock, and this time it may not survive without a complete reboot. Until that happens, we can expect financial turmoil.

Typically with these crises, the first victims will be those with the riskiest gambling portfolios-in this case people who have been buying junk bonds and stocks at historically unsustainable prices.

On a final note, we must inform our readers there is a lot we are being asked not to report just yet so the bad guys cannot interfere. However, we can say that the good guys, with really nice plans for the planet, are headed for victory. Planetary liberation is coming soon.

#1489284 at 2018-05-21 03:07:31 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #1870: Enjoy The Q Show

ITALY's President is expected to confirm a coalition between the League and the Five-Star Movement (M5S) today, cementing the nation as having one of the most Eurosceptic governments on the continent.
https
://www.express.co.uk/news/world/962751/Italy-coalition-news-latest-government-approved-today-Sergio-Mattarella-Luigi-Di-Maio-M5S

#1489228 at 2018-05-21 03:03:31 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #1870: Enjoy The Q Show

MIGA!!
WWG1WGA

EU on 'ALERT' - Italy president expect to confirm new Eurosceptic government TODAY

ITALY's President is expected to confirm a coalition between the League and the Five-Star Movement (M5S) today, cementing the nation as having one of the most Eurosceptic governments on the continent.

"The objectives that are in the contract are for Italy and the Italians.

"Even on European level, from now on, the Italians come first. And then the deficit and the parameters."

The expected coalition's programme put forward on Friday includes slashing taxes, spenDing increases and clamping down on "raDical Islamic associations".

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/962751/Italy-coalition-news-latest-government-approved-today-Sergio-Mattarella-Luigi-Di-Maio-M5S

#1485744 at 2018-05-20 22:21:11 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #1866 The Sea of Madness

——- UPDATE FROM ITALY——

Itafag Q stalker here. Introducing you to our two saviors: Luigi Di Maio (5 stars) and Matteo Salvini (Lega). We couldn' t find one Trump, so we had to go for two heroes.

EVERYBODY is against them: the EU, Macron, Merkel, the banks, the global institutions, the fucking meDia, everybody keeps saying REEEE the fascists are coming REEE. Also the italian President is against them: he's trying to stop them to form a govt and nominate a premier they like. And this is AGAINST the Constitution!

Tomorrow will be the D-Day. Tomorrow they'll go to the President to nominate the new premier. 60% of the country support them, and we all are holDing our breath. They risked everything with their patriot standpoints, this is quite outrageous here.

Last, I know you'll like this: someone says they had a plan. They had a plan like a chess game to navigate all the traps through month and months of talks, attacks and finger-pointing. An one year plan to get here and get all they want: the right premier, the right ministers, the right project to save Italy. And maybe, destroy the euro.

I'll keep you updated if you like. Italy is the first in Europe: where we go one, we go all!

#1432378 at 2018-05-16 17:39:18 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #1797: Climbing the stairway to Heaven Edition

>>1432344
BO's target aquisition skills are good today. Many newfags on board, (((JIDF))) and black hat shills are counting on confusion to attack and Divide in typical kike fashion. Leaving BV up to you. Be wary of (((their))) actions on this board.

America FIRST

we DiG.


Italian Bond Futures, Euro Climb As Italian Coalition Agreement Reached


https:// www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-16/italian-bond-futures-euro-climb-italian-coalition-agreement-reached

"The culmination of months of negotiations between the anti-immigrant Northern League and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement has arrived Wednesday afternoon in the form of a forty page comprehensive policy agreement reached between the two parties, accorDing to Ansa, the Italian newswire.

Northern League Deputy ClauDio Borghi confirmed in a tweet that negotiations have produced an agreement that must now be approved by party leaders Matteo Salvini, who represents the Northern League, and Luigi Di Maio, who represents the Five Star Movement."

#1359410 at 2018-05-10 16:36:15 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #1704 POTUS & KJU to Meet in Singapore June 12th Edition

CONFIRMED: EU's worst NIGHTMARE as Italian eurosceptics JOIN FORCES
ITALY is on the brink of new raDical government as Die-hard eurosceptic leaders Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio revealed "significant progress" has been made in the composition of the new executive, spelling trouble for the Brussels bloc.
By ALESSANDRA SCOTTO Di SANTOLO
PUBLISHED: 12:30, Thu, May 10, 2018 | UPDATED: 14:57, Thu, May 10, 2018

Lega leader Matteo Salvini and Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio have officially announced Thursday's talks between the two eurosceptic parties have been successful, sparking fears of renewed challenges to the European Union after Brexit.

In a joint written statement, the two leaders revealed "significant progress" has been made and further meetings will be held on Thursday afternoon to decide on the future ministerial positions the two parties will hold.

The joint statement read: "Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio met this morning in the Italian Parliament.

"Five Star Movement spokesman Vincenzo Spadafora and Lega House leader Giancarlo Giorgetti were also present.

"There is a positive climate to define the joint political programme and the priorities of the future government.

"This afternoon, the first meeting between the parties' chiefs of staff will be held to Discuss the future of the Different governmental sectors.

Looks like the Globalists are getting their asses handed to them by Italy today.

https:// www.express.co.uk/news/world/957722/Italy-news-Matteo-Salvini-Luigi-Di-Maio-European-Union