Italy & Hungary: Taking Back Control

Recent populist moves by Hungary's Viktor Orbán and Italy's Matteo Salvini have widened the rift between their nations and transnational EU policies.

• Orbán has passed a law permitting families with four or more children to be exempt from income tax for life:

This new tax incentive is a clear pro-white move to boost the native Hungarian population, such a powerful incentive is proof that mass migration is not necessary to replenish a declining population.

Orbán stated that “they (the EU) want as many migrants to enter as there are missing kids, so that the numbers will add up. We Hungarians have a different way of thinking. Instead of just numbers, we want Hungarian children. Migration for us is surrender.” Orbán also called for anti-migration politicians to take over the EU, as he recently hailed a new partnership between Poland’s right wing government and Italy’s populist interior minister, Matteo Salvini.

• Salvini has called for central banking in Italy to be audited and "reduced to zero":

Salvini has called for wresting control of Italy's sizeable gold reserves away from the country's central bank in a series of threats to the independence of the Bank of Italy by Rome's populist coalition.

He said the Bank of Italy and Consob, the country’s stock market regulator, should be "reduced to zero, more than changing one or two people, reduced to zero" or in other words eliminated, and that “fraudsters” who inflicted losses on Italian savers should "end up in prison for a long time."

Meanwhile, ECB head Mario Draghi, an Italian and former former governor of the Bank of Italy, last year warned that central bank independence was under threat by populist governments, while not making a direct reference to Italy. Should Salvini cement his de facto Italian leadership in upcoming elections, it would make life for the local central bank especially complicated.

Recently, the government nominated Paolo Savona, a veteran economist and prominent Eurosceptic who had previously served as minister for European affairs, as the new president of Consob. Savona was last year been blocked as the coalition’s first choice as economy minister by Italian president Sergio Mattarella, following strong pressure from Brussels and a revolt in the Italian bond market.