Populist Senator Founds ‘Italexit’ Party to Quit EU, Ditch Euro

(Bloomberg) -- A Brexit-inspired populist senator has launched an Italian political party committed to pulling the country out of the European Union and ditching the euro, dismissing the bloc as a “Germanic” construct.

Gianluigi Paragone, a former talk-show host who was expelled from the ruling anti-establishment Five Star Movement, on Thursday unveiled his group called “No Europe for Italy” with a logo that includes the word “Italexit.”

“I say ‘No’ to this Europe and I start afresh with Italy, because I want to start from the sovereignty of a state which has all the cards it needs to play all the markets,” Paragone told reporters in Rome. “The euro is in fact a slightly-devalued Deutsche Mark, so Germany does better” in “a Germanic union,” he said.

Paragone is looking to tap into a long-term euroskeptic shift in Italy, one of the EU’s founding nations, and is basing his appeal on arguments of both economics and sovereignty. Many Italians were angered by what they saw as the bloc’s failure to respond quickly enough to the country’s pleas for help when the coronavirus struck.

The perception of a lack of solidarity, which prompted some officials in Rome to express concern about the risk of anti-euro sentiment, will be hard to erase for many voters. Still, Paragone’s move comes only days after EU leaders approved a 750 billion-euro ($870 billion) recovery fund, with Italy set to be its biggest beneficiary.

Paragone dismissed the fund, saying the money will never reach the real economy.

The bloc has impoverished families, workers, small and mid-sized entrepreneurs and professionals by luring them into a spiral of debt, he said. Only ditching the EU and the single currency would trigger an economic recovery, especially in the wake of the virus emergency, he added.

Already well-known as a political talk-show host, the 48-year-old Paragone was first elected to the Senate in 2018. He was kicked out of Five Star in January after opposing the government in a confidence vote on the budget.

Farage Model

His aim is to forge support for first exiting the EU, as ditching the single currency on its own appears impossible. He faces a tough challenge. A July 6 survey by the Piepoli Institute credited his party with 5% of the vote, the sixth-biggest in the country, with the anti-migrant League dominating at 27%.

Italians still back the euro, surveys suggest. A poll by Euromedia Research in June showed that 58.2% support the single currency, with just 33.8% opposing it. A separate SWG poll showed that 39% of Italians trust the EU, compared with 27% in April. But euroskepticism has been generally on the rise over the past two decades.

The senator cheerfully acknowledged Brexiteer Nigel Farage as a model. “We share a political project which he carried out, so he has won the gold medal,” Paragone said. “I want to compete now, and I willingly follow someone who won the gold.”

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