Authored by Tom Luongo,

A court in Sicily has ruled that Interior Minister, leader of The League and all-around Euroskeptic bad-ass Matteo Salvini should stand trial for kidnapping migrants held in abeyance off Italy’s shores.

“I confess,” Salvini said in a video posted to his Facebook page, “there is no need for a trial. It’s true, I did it and I’d do it again.” “I risk 3 to 15 years in prison for blocking illegal landings in Italy. I have no words,” wrote Salvini, the leader of the ultra-nationalist Lega (League) party, which now rules Italy in a coalition with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S).

If this wasn’t so stupid it would be hysterical, actually. But it exists and it’s an attack on Salvini that has a number of angles to it.

As Dr. Steve Turley explains in the video below one of the goals of this attack is to drive a wedge between Five Star Movement (M5S) and its coalition partner, The League.

Early returns on this look to be it will go nowhere as M5S leader Luigi DI Maio supported Salvini. But, the real issue isn’t the coalition government.

If somehow Di Maio can’t ride herd over his faction with the Italian parliament and they vote to allow this trial to go forward then M5S will continue sinking into obscurity and The League’s rising poll numbers will accelerate.

As Turley points out it is not in M5S’s best interest to betray its partner at this point. They enjoy parliamentary representation well above their current polling.

So, they would jeopardize everything they’ve worked to shape Italian domestic policy.

But that’s not the real issue here. The real issue is this is an attempt by the EU and The Davos Crowd behind them to slow down the integration of the Euroskeptic movement around Europe to challenge the current status quo in the European Parliament.

Salvini called for a “League of Leagues” after his meeting with Hungary’s Viktor Orban.

That’s why Salvini is calling for “A League of Leagues” across Europe. He will succeed. This is the guy who successfully rebranded the secessionist Northern League into the MIGA party – Make Italy Great Again. Then he and Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio navigated the Italian Swamp to form a government experts said couldn’t work, while simultaneously neutering establishment stalking horse Silvio Berlusconi.

Thanks to Salvini’s strategic genius Italian politics will never be the same again. His League now polls around 30%, which bodes well for it in next year’s European Parliamentary Elections. Because now his sights are MEGA – Make Europe Great Again.

In fact, this frivolous lawsuit is prima facia evidence that the EU oligarchs in Brussels are officially scared of what’s coming in May’s European Parliamentary elections.

If Salvini wasn’t a threat they wouldn’t be going after him this way.

If you bind Salvini down with having to whip up support in Italy he’s not spending that time convincing the leaders of Alternative for Germany (AfD) or Marine Le Pen’s National Rally to coalesce into a unified opposition against the hardcore leftist European integrationists.

Populist Euroskeptic movements are still rising all across Europe. And the EU needs to get past this election to ensure that the real power in Brussels remains in the hands of The Davos Crowd. This has become an existential threat to the European project.

It has to stay on course despite the will of the people of Europe.

It’s an act of pure desperation. It’s no different than how they are handling Brexit. And it’s why the EU will not cave on Brexit until the last minute, if at all. They cannot empower Salvini, Le Pen, Kurz, Orban, et.al. against them.

Caving to the U.K. on Brexit will reveal how weak they truly are.

So, Salvini and Di Maio were right to embrace the accusations rather than soft-peddle. The people are craving competent leadership and this initial show of solidarity demonstrates that.

This will have to be dealt with and it will be a real test of the political situation in Italy. If the Senate votes this down then Salvini can ignore it and, worse for Brussels, campaign harder on it.

It will also shore up his support abroad as the real prize, the European Commission Presidency comes into focus. If it fails then that will make it much harder to put together a coalition strong enough to block Jean Claude-Juncker’s expected successor.

The future of the EU actually hangs in the balance on this frivolity. That tells you just how desperate things really are for the current leadership of the rapidly disintegrating European Union.

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