Italy’s Broken Vote System Spreads Through Europe

(Bloomberg) --

Matteo Salvini had everyone convinced that he was about to torpedo Italy’s bickering ruling coalition this week.

The man who’s essentially running the country had flirted with the idea before, but as John Follain reports, it was on July 18 that the deputy prime minister came the closest yet to the taking the plunge.

Over stuffed Casoncelli pasta and Bresaola salted beef, a tense-looking Salvini asked his League Party lieutenants what was the point in carrying on if he couldn’t push key policies through? He eventually pulled back from the brink, but the account speaks volumes not just about him, but the state of European politics.

Once-a-year elections used to just be a wacky Italian phenomenon. No more. From Brexit-addled Britain to Catalonia-weary Spain, broken electoral systems are emerging as a defining feature in Europe.

Spaniards have voted three times in four years and could do so again unless Pedro Sanchez can somehow get a smaller party to play ball. In the U.K., the Conservatives have a barely-functioning majority that will make life difficult for new Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

In short, don't be surprised if all three countries lurch to early elections by the year’s end.

Global Headlines 

Pompeo interview | U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told Bloomberg that the door remains open for diplomacy with North Korea — even though it launched short-range missiles early yesterday — and that he hopes working-level talks between the two countries will begin in the next month or so.

• Pompeo also said he’d be willing to travel to Tehran to address the Iranian people amid rising tensions with Donald Trump’s administration. 
• He urged Turkey not to make the S-400 missile defense system it purchased from Russia “operational” as Trump holds off on new sanctions.
• And he called on China to “do the right thing” in dealing with protests in Hong Kong.
• Meanwhile, North Korea’s economy appears to have shrunk last year by the most since the peak of its 1990s famine.

Parallel movements | Hong Kong’s black-shirted anti-government protesters are drawing comparisons with another group on the opposite side of the world: France’s Yellow Vests. Both are hard to pin down, determined, prone to evolve — and their demonstrations could drag on indefinitely.

• Hundreds of protesters are staging a sit-in at Hong Kong’s international airport, the first of three days of demonstrations after clashes last week sparked fears more violence could erupt.

Deadlock looms | The European Union wasted little time in telling Johnson that a change of face in Downing Street would not mean a change of heart in Brussels. The new prime minister wants to reopen the Brexit deal thrashed out by his predecessor, something the bloc again refused to do. It’s not clear how Johnson can break the impasse, or even if he wants to: He's promised to “turbo charge” preparations for leaving without an agreement.

Bitter politics | On her first day on the job, Puerto Rico’s governor-in-waiting was embroiled in an investigation of her conduct as the commonwealth’s chief law-enforcement officer. Wanda Vazquez is facing accusations she ignored evidence of possible corruption in the disbursement of hurricane aid, allegations that reflect the bankrupt island’s bitter and personal politics.

Granite State showdown | New England Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will face off early next year in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary with a huge prize at stake: the claim to the party’s progressive mantle. Whoever loses could find a path to the nomination difficult to chart.

• Click here to read about the Democratic contenders’ renewed opposition to the death penalty after the government announced it would resume executions following a 16-year hiatus.
• Tale a closer look at Democrats’ efforts to recruit candidates to help them win control of the Senate next year.
• And learn more about the details of candidate Kamala Harris's proposal to invest $60 billion in historically black colleges in Bloomberg's daily Campaign Update.

And finally ... House Democrats hoping their presidential probes would gain the type of traction that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation 45 years ago have been sorely disappointed. Now they’re invoking a Nixon-era precedent in their attempts to get hold of Trump’s tax returns. Newly released documents show the Internal Revenue Service immediately complied with a request for Nixon’s returns from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.

--With assistance from Kathleen Hunter, Katherine Rizzo, Stuart Biggs and Karen Leigh.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Winfrey at mwinfrey@bloomberg.net, Rosalind Mathieson

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