Italy held five referendums on labour rights and migration policy on June 8th and 9th. All were called by the Left against the desires of Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and her government. None had anything to do with democracy. Instead, they were a masterclass in political subterfuge and a thinly veiled attempt by the left to cripple the prime minister and her wildly popular coalition. Far from a democratic exercise, these five votes were a cynical ploy to erode the authority of a right-wing administration.
This is no isolated incident but part of a broader trend, now increasingly common throughout the West: Desperate to counter the apparently unstoppable ascendency of conservative forces, a receding Left is resorting to extraordinary mechanisms—judicial activism, street violence, and foreign-backed protests—to sabotage its rivals and prevent them from implementing their agenda. The Italian gambit failed, but the pattern persists, from Hungary to California, exposing a left bereft of ideas—and scruples.
Italy’s referendums are but the latest in a long list of examples. Orchestrated by the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and Five Star Movement (M5S), these weren’t genuinely grassroots cries for change. Rather, they were a calculated move by opposition elites, trade unions, and Brussels-aligned NGOs to paralyse Meloni’s reforms. The goal wasn’t victory—polls have persistently shown strong support for the PM’s policies—but to mire her government in legal and political quicksand. Draped in democratic rhetoric, the referendums were a bait-and-switch to undermine a legitimate mandate and prevent Meloni from acting on her promises to put an end to mass migration and breathe new life into Italy’s beleaguered, high-debt, low-growth economy.
Italians saw through it. Fewer than 30 per cent took the trouble of participating in the charade. The opposition got its preferred answer in each of the five questions posed—but, with such pathetic turnout, the referendums were deemed non-binding. The Left had wished for a demonstration of force. Instead, Italians reiterated their support for their Prime Minister.
This tactic, however, is hardly unique to Italy. In Hungary, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz faces relentless judicial assaults from EU-aligned courts. Brussels barely tries to conceal its enthusiasm for Péter Magyar, with whom it hopes to replace Mr. Orbán next year. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has also systematically targeted Hungary’s migration and media policies, imposing a €200 million fine in 2023 for asylum rules—a move widely seen as politically driven to weaken Orbán. Just now, Hungary’s internal stability is being carefully and stubbornly sabotaged from abroad; demonstrations are being concocted against the country’s new transparency law, decried by its opponents as targeting ‘foreign agents’—perhaps a fair description of what these opposition groups actually are. In Poland, the left-leaning judiciary, backed by EU funds, clashes with the opposition Law and Justice Party (PiS) over constitutional reforms, ignoring its democratic mandate. These judicial manoeuvres aren’t about justice but about punishing conservative governments and opposition leaders.
When courts and faux referendums fail, the Left has made it a habit to turn to the streets—and, whenever necessary, to outright violence. In Serbia, protests against President Aleksandar Vučić’s government rapidly escalated into large scale disturbances, amplified by foreign NGOs, European embassies, and shady money. Vučić called it an “imported revolution”, and he was most likely right. Last year, in Slovakia, the demonstrations against Prime Minister Robert Fico’s reforms were fuelled by EU-aligned NGOs, painting him as authoritarian while ignoring his electoral legitimacy. The Prime Minister was shot, badly wounded, and almost killed a year ago by a radicalised opposition-supporter. It took him months to recover.
But nothing has made Western leftists quite as angry as Donald Trump’s triumphant return to the White House. The mass protests in Los Angeles and elsewhere across the US against Trump’s migration policies and the military parade held in Washington to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States Army definitely has a taste of déjà vu to it. The 2020 Black Lives Matter protests definitely come to mind—and so do, too, the numerous European disturbances that, orchestrated by more or less mysteriously-funded NGOs, have become the weapon of choice against those (conservative) governments disdained by globalist elites.
What unites these cases—Italy’s referendums, Hungary’s judicial battles, the protests in Serbia and Slovakia, and California’s violence—is a left-wing playbook that doesn’t just bypass the rules of electoral democracy. If openly breaks them. Referendums are weaponised to entangle governments. Courts, sanctions, and threats are used to punish ideological foes. Protests aim to destabilise inconvenient governments rather than empower the people. If it strikes you as desperate, it should. But don’t underestimate the power or viciousness of a cornered beast—and, today, that is exactly how globalists on both sides of the pond are feeling.
Still, conservatives shouldn’t let healthy prudence turn into pessimism. Italy’s failed referendums have strengthened Meloni and shown, in clearer terms than ever, that the Italian people does stand solidly behind its Prime Minister and her platform of reaffirmed national sovereignty, love of country, controlled immigration, and sensible economic reform. EU meddling in Hungary and Serbia has failed; in both cases, the people saw through the ruse. In Georgia, Europhile, Brussels-sponsored hooligans attempted a coup d’état against the patriotic government of Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, but Kobakhidze held his ground and won in the end. In the US, violent protest will not break Trump; rather, it will prove to moderates that left-wing radicalism and mass immigration need to be dealt with head-on. Globalism’s turn to instrumentalised chaos has, in some cases, worked in the past. But so it has recently failed almost everywhere it has been tried. Most times, it has been self-defeating. Those who care for democracy and the welfare of their nations must therefore be vigilant—and never give an inch.
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