The political situation of the European Union is in recent days at the center of the attention of the British press, especially in view of the elections to the European Parliament to be held in May 2019. The Italian Nova agency reports that the newspaper "The Guardian" highlights the rise of populist parties, both right and left, in several EU member states. Among these formations the antisystem of the 5 Movement stars (M5S) and the Lega are particularly relevant. According to the "Guardian", the populist parties will not be able to form a majority coalition in the next European parliament. However, the "chaos" that the affirmation of the populists could create in the work of the next EU legislative assembly is worrying. For the "Financial Times" newspaper, the 2019 will be a crucial year in the struggle between the pro-European, progressive and internationalist forces, and the Eurosceptic and nationalist formations. This is a clash on the idea and identity of Europe and its future. This comparison goes well beyond the simplified view of a duel between the virtuous and liberal Western Europe and the reactionaries of the eastern states of the continent. As a demonstration of how divisions are not just geographical, the "Financial Times" cites Italy, a founding state of the European Union. The vice president of the Council, Interior Minister and League leader, Matteo Salvini, has predicted that the next elections of the European Parliament will be "a referendum between the Europe of the elites, of the banks, of finance, of immigration and of precarious work and the Europe of peoples and workers ". That of Salvini, comments the "Financial Times", is a "bold challenge to the EU's orthodoxy" that could also have been enunciated by the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, or by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president of the Right and justice, to the government in Poland. Salvini in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, concludes the "Financial Times", are proof that right-wing radicalism and populism are widespread throughout Europe, both in Western and Eastern countries.
