Following a fratricidal period for the left with Morales and Arce at loggerheads, right-wing, anti-MAS candidates obtained over 85 per cent of the votes cast in the latest general election, writes FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ

LEGA, Italy’s right-wing immigrant-bashing populist party, is the clear winner not only of the recent election but of the traditional orgy of bargaining between the parties that now command a majority in the House of Deputies.
The biggest vote-winner was M5S (Five Star Movement) which took a third of the votes in the March 2018 elections and 36 per cent of seats.
Since the election, its ratings have remained stable but Lega, which rebranded itself as a national rather than regional party, has moved up six points, mainly, it seems, by cannibalising Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.

Starmer sabotaged Labour with his second referendum campaign, mobilising a liberal backlash that sincerely felt progressive ideals were at stake — but the EU was then and is now an entity Britain should have nothing to do with, explains NICK WRIGHT

Deep disillusionment with the Westminster cross-party consensus means rupture with the status quo is on the cards – bringing not only opportunities but also dangers, says NICK WRIGHT

Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT

From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT