Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European ...

Italy 99
polls continue to show that the majority of Italians hold very critical views
of politics and politicians which are similar, if not identical, to those articulated
by the leaders of populist movements throughout Europe. Moreover,
anxieties about immigration, the creation of a multiethnic society, the end
of religious and cultural homogeneity, the erosion of the sovereignty of the
state versus the European Union, and the consequences of globalization, are
all important dynamics in public opinion. For the political entrepreneurs of
populism, therefore, both those of the present and those of the future, Italy
remains a fertile terrain for populism.