国际英语资讯:News Analysis: Is Italys Renzi able to fight populist Five Star Movement?_时事

国际英语资讯:News Analysis: Is Italys Renzi able to fight populist Five Star Movement?

That vote -- which was widely hailed by populist, right-wing and Eurosceptic parties -- was seen as a judgment against the reformist premier and his pro-European, pro-immigration policies in times of sluggish economic recovery, in which the euro is being widely blamed for continued unemployment and a lack of prospects for Italy's youth.

A caretaker government led by former foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni -- also of Renzi's PD -- was in place a week later, but the party suffered the defection of a left-wing dissenting minority in February led by former party chief and ex-premier Pier Luigi Bersani.

As a result, the Democratic Party slipped to second place in nationwide polls while the Five Star Movement, which is clamoring for a referendum on leaving the eurozone, replaced it at the top.

On April 25 this year, the Five Stars were polling at just over 29 percent and the Democratic Party at 26.8 percent, with Bersani's breakaway faction garnering 4 percent. By comparison, exactly two years ago, Renzi's PD stood at almost 37 percent of the vote, followed by the Five Star Movement at just under 20 percent.

Remaining a member of the EU is becoming a tough sell in Italy, where average household income plummeted from some 40,000 U.S. dollars a year in 1991 to about 32,000 U.S. dollars in 2010, according to an April study from the Pew Research Center.

By comparison, in 2010, Luxembourg had average household income of over 60,000 U.S. dollars a year, against about 52,000 U.S. a year in Norway and over 41,000 U.S. dollars per year in Germany, according to the Pew report titled "Middle Class Fortunes in Western Europe."