The confrontational attitude toward Brussels and Berlin is unusual among heads of the eurozone governments. Yet, beyond its electoral ends, the Italian Prime Minister's argument hits indubitable aspects of the Eurozone's crisis.
Technological change has not been a leading factor in our wage problems or inequality in the 2000s. Wage stagnation and growing wage inequality are the consequences of policy decisions made over the last four decades.
The EU Commission’s Report mentions the case of a positive effect of an expansionary fiscal policy in the long run, but its conclusions move in the opposite way.
In the last three months Portugal went through legislative and presidential elections, with results impacting in national governance but also aiming to contribute to turn Europe away from obsessive austerity policies
On one side, significant investments in natural gas, carbon capture and storage and renewable energy; on the other one electro-chemical batteries that have achieved unpredictable performance and cost improvements in the transportation field.
The exit of Greece from the euro zone by choice or happenstance might have caused ripples but not disaster for the currency union. By contrast, the exit of Spain, with the fourth largest GDP in the euro zone, would be catastrophic, the end of the single currency and perhaps the European Union in its present form. The German government and its austerity allies could not threaten an anti-austerity Spanish government as they did Syriza.
Both mainstream parties are struggling, and their tactics to counter the FN have proven to be costly for the Socialists and ineffective for the Republicans.
