The EU Has Rejected Italy's Budget. That's Just What Rome Wanted.
The EU’s move comes amid growing economic problems in Italy, but the country’s ascendant populists will flaunt Brussels’s decision as a victory.
Since it came to power in May, Italy’s coalition government has always been a marriage of convenience. The Five Star Movement won the economically struggling Italian south with its campaign pledges of a universal basic income, and the right-wing League party won the economically prosperous north with its pledges of tax cuts.
That fundamental incoherence met its biggest test yet on Tuesday, when the European Union Italy’s 2019 draft budget—an unprecedented move against a eurozone country—saying its deficit targets and wishful thinking about growth posed a serious threat to economic stability in Europe. Italy now has
