THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – Another crisis looms in an already shook-up European Union. Italian voters rocked Europe’s boat more this weekend than Austrian voters were able to steady it. With its shaky banks and massive economy, Italy is now in the throes of energized populists who are no friends of EU leaders in Brussels.
And the storm isn’t over yet: Europe’s unity and common currency face growing uncertainty in a raft of upcoming elections, notably in the Netherlands and France, where the far-right looms large. And like Italy, both are founding nations that were at the cradle of the EU in the 1950s.
“Europe in 2017, we all know, will be a disaster,” said Giovanni Orsina, a political scientist at the Luiss University in Rome. “We have to expect European paralysis.”
Unless EU juggernauts like France and Germany find ways to turn the tide, it could leave the defeat of the extremist right wing in Austria’s presidential election on Sunday as a mere blip on an increasingly muddled screen.
What counts is that the anti-establishment wave that swept over Britain and then the United States won another victory Sunday that could further shake the foundation of the European Union. Italians rejected constitutional reforms championed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who had boldly staked his political future on winning the referendum. To rub it in, Renzi offered his resignation against the backdrop of the starry EU flag.