Italy's vote: what's really behind the surge in support for populist parties

The voters of Italy have not so much spoken as snarled and shouted.

While Sunday’s election handed no party a clear mandate to govern, it drove home a message with sobering implications for the rest of Europe and beyond: the issue of immigrants and refugees, weaponized politically by populist firebrands promising to seal off borders and “reclaim” their countries’ true identity, has become a dominant force in Western politics.

A five-month political stalemate in Germany – finally resolved only as the Italians were voting – has