Daily Times

It is believed that Julius Caesar was of divine descend because Venus, the goddess of love, had married a trojan prince, who later became the mother of legendary founder of the Julian family. Julius first married with Cinna, the daughter of the powerful opposition faction, headed by Marius, the staunch opponent of Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, the head of the aristocratic family. A year or two later, when Sulla became the emperor of the State, the young Caesar was ordered to put away his wife, which Caesar refused because of his gross powerful support in Rome. Sulla then responded: “You fools, you are supporting a dangerous fellow”.

Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Northern league, won most of the seats in the Italian parliament alongside its ideological prototype the far- right centric Five Star Movement in the last year elections. The young modern Caesar with his supporters in the Italian Parliament thus ascended to the throne of far-right resurgence in Europe. Today, Italy’s Far-Right has become the spearhead of ultra-nationalist populism across Europe.

Salvini currently serving as Italy’s interior minister that gave him the frim authority over national security, immigration and policing. But the modern young Caesar has not only dreams for Italy rather he is now looking beyond it. As the world is already suffering from the intense political polarization. In Europe this polarization has further broadened because of the emergence of neo-populist parties on the mainstream political landscape, which are putting a graveyard challenge to the existing traditional unionist liberal centric parties.

Last year, the prominent far right leaders gathered in Prague for a two days conference to discuss the future political strategy with their unified stance on immigration and other issues such as close borders. The prominent far-right figures including Marine Le Pen of France and Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, and Matteo Salvini of Italy, headed the conference by promising a new future for Europe. Though, both Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders failed to win the significant majority in their respective parliaments, but Italy’s Matteo Salvini achieved what he always wanted – significant majority.

According to various analysts, Matteo has the courage to bring all the far-right and ultra-nationalist parties in Europe under one umbrella by pushing the very phenomenon of popular nationalism beyond the borders.  Presently, the two prominent far-right parties are controlling Italy’s Parliament – the alliance is between the Salvini’s party, the First Place Finisher and the Five Star Movement.

Last year, the prominent far right leaders gathered in Prague for a two days conference to discuss the future political strategy with their unified stance on immigration and other issues such as close borders

On the other hand, the American Far-Right hardliner, Steve Bannon, after his expulsion from the white house has travelled to Italy, where he met Matteo Salvini, to support his ultra-nationalist initiative in both Italy and beyond. According to reports, Bannon has suggested and proposed a plan to bring together all the Far-Right parties of Europe under single joint initiative. In Bannon’s opinion, it is the best time for all the nationalist parties of Europe to uplift themselves beyond the national elections by preparing themselves for the upcoming European Union elections. And, Matteo Salvini is firmly supporting Bannon’s grand project of New Europe that would be based on national sovereignty and Euro-centrism.

The objectives of all Far-Right parties regarding European Union is same; they oppose the Brussel’s monopoly over public spending across the European Union. With this tougher objective, the far-right parties have recently gained a base ground in various countries not only among the nationalists but among unionists too. The far-right parties have already gained firm hold in Hungary, Denmark, Czech Republic, Netherland, Germany, Poland and even Europe’s finest social democracies such as Norway and Finland. The mainstream message of all these parties is same: strong borders and no immigrants.

What Salvini said: “history repeats in cycles”. According to him, the cycle of this history belongs to the far-right. He is promising to remake the Europe from within by blocking immigration and expelling all the undocumented immigrants, who are burden on Italy’s ailing economy. Since, they came to power; there have been 80 percent drop in immigration because Matteo Salvini has already deployed a large number of coastal guards on the Italian shores to block the entry of immigrants.

In a broader European Context, a new axis is emerging against the unionist liberal axis, where on one side, there is Salvini and his allies and Markel and Macron, on the other. Moreover, the far-right axis has already attracted a firm support from Russia and China because they condemn the liberal hysteria of mainstream liberal parties of Europe against Russia and China. In Russia, it is called the Politics of opportunity, in which one group supports the other for utility. Both Matteo Salvini and his America patron Mateo Salvini has welcomed the support for the “the organizing principle” that will save Europe from destruction – what Salvini said: “Changing Europe is our big goal and it is on our finger tips” – the modern Caesar is much dangerous fellow and he can’t be stopped easily.

The writer is a postgraduate student with keen interest of writing on history, geopolitics, Current affairs, philosophy and International political economy. He can be reached at @rahimabbas3

Published in Daily Times, November  10^th 2018.