Etrurian Way
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Etrurian Way Modo etruriano Etrurska Način | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Francesco Carcaterra |
| Secretary-General | Cassandra Menicucci |
| Founder | Francesco Carcaterra |
| Founded | December 2, 2009 |
| Merger of | Etrurian National Movement People's Voice Popular Action |
| Headquarters | Strada Cesario Forlenza Poveglia |
| Newspaper | Centurion |
| Student wing | Bright Vanguard |
| Youth wing | Young Vanguard |
| Charity Wing | Open Movement |
| Membership (January 2017) |  1,586,788 |
| Ideology | right-wing populism welfare chauvinism Etrurian nationalism |
| Political position | right-wing to far right |
| Religion | Poveglian Catholic |
| Slogan | 'The Etrurian Way is the best way' (Il modo etruriano è il modo migliore) O Veturio lavali cor fouco (Oh Veturius, wash them with fire; unofficial) |
| State Council | 111 / 252 |
| Senate | 387 / 680 |
| Constituent State governments | 2 / 3 |
| Autonomous Region legislature seats | 193 / 384 |
| Local seats | 3,271 / 5,888 |
Etrurian Way (Vespasian: Modo Etruriano; Carinthian and Novalian: Etrurska Način) is a Etrurian right-wing populist political party. It has come to dominate Etrurian politics on the federal and local level since its landslide victory in the November 2016 national elections, securing it a parliamentary majority, that has been supported by majorities in two constituent state legislatures. Modo Etruriano also retains current majorities in the Vespasian and Novalian state senates, and gained a majority of local government seats in the May 2016 local elections. It has been described as a quasi-fascist party, a far-right movement and a big tent party.
History
Origins
The origins of Etrurian Way are found in a series of smaller parties that emerged in the wake of the "Drašković Scandal" in 2005. Three parties were founded; Etrurian National Movement (by Francesco Carcaterra), People's Voice (by Ettore Fioravanzo) and Popular Action (by Ettore Mantovano), all three campaigned for dramatic reductions in the salary and benefits both Senators and State Councillors receive and a dramatic increase in federal oversight of the constituent state governments.
All three parties shared near-identical manifestos and were all social media savvy and secured growing support among students and uneducated working class voters, but would split the right-wing vote between during the by-elections of 2006, 2007 and 2009. All three parties met at a conference in Accadia in August 2008 to discuss "cooperation against the corrupt elites", however they found such common ground that negotiations to began to merge the parties into one movement in the Spring of 2009, however they would not secure a final agreement until early December of the same year.
On the 9 December the three parties merged to form the Etrurian Way with Francesco Carcaterra as leader, Ettore Mantovano as deputy leader and Ettore Fioravanzo as the economics spokesman. These respective roles would be replicated following the party's gaining of power in the 2016 election, with Carcaterra and Mantovano as president and vice president respectively and Fioravanzo as Finance Minister.
2009-2010 protest movement
Following its formation in December 2009, the party immediately began to prepare itself for the spring election of 2010. However the party struggled to develop a cohesive position, due to the focus of the party being on confronting chronic corruption in the government and judiciary, leading many to consider the Etrurian Way a single-issue party. Etrurian Way contested the 2010 general and constituent state elections with little financing and much infighting, securing itself as the fifth largest party in the general election with 8.81% of the vote, with 5 million votes and winning 8 seats out of 680 in the lower house, four seats in the upper house with 7% of the popular vote. However it caused a major upset when it took the Vespasian state government, winning a slim majority. However many commentators noted that the message and platform of the state level party in Vespasia under Francesco Mandarini was significantly different to that of the national party message.
Following the Vespasian win, which was heralded as a "huge success story for a minor party", it in fact revealed huge divisions within the party over ideology. Many senior officials also feared that Francesco Mandarini's emergence as the leader of the most powerful state in the federation may jeopordise the party leadership. It was after the 2010 general election that the party began to move further to the right. Yet it continued to exhibit behaviours and rhetoric of a protest movement, still focusing on confronting corruption.
2010-2012 growing visibility
In 2011, Carcaterra met with Mandarini to discuss changes to the party, leading to Carcaterra calling for a party conference to announce changes to the party's positions. He sought to broaden ME's image away from that of a single-issue party by introducing an array of socially conservative policies, including reducing immigration, tax cuts, protecting church schools, and advocating "patriotism across the land". In doing so he sought to capitalise on disenfranchised former Federalist Party members who had left the party after its leader and current president, Paolo Illiano, had moved in a socially liberal direction. According to Carcaterra, Illiano was "a socialist" whose priorities were "gay marriage, foreign aid, and wind farms". Illiano was highly critical of Etrurian Way, referring to them as "fascists, thugs, and closet racists". After the Drašković scandal re-emerged in 2012, the Etrurian Way witnessed an immediate surge in support, aiding them in the 2012 local elections, winning 21.8 million votes and over 1,000 seats and 38 Comuni authorities, coming third behind the Socialist Party and the Federalist Party.
In September 2012, the party seized the Carinthian capital of Dubovica following the mayor's resignation over the Drašković Scandal, marking its first real success outside of Vespasia.
Between October and December 2012, the party worked hard to establish various positions on the economy, social issues, religion and law and order - quickly emerging as a right-wing populist party that advocated zero-tolerance on crime and drugs, a referendum on the reinstatement of capital punish for serious crimes as well as calls for a popular referendum on judicial reform.
2010-2014 electoral gains and growth
2014-2016
2016-present
Leaders
| Portrait | Name | Entered office | Left office | Length of leadership |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:FrancescoCarcaterra1.jpg | Francesco Carcaterra | 2 December 2009 | incumbent | 14 years, 11 months and 21 days |
Ideology
Etrurian Way's position on the political spectrum has been subject to major debate. At its inception as an anti-corruption protest movement in 2009, the party supported social and economic liberalism and increased government transparency. However following its gains in the 2010 general election, Etrurian Way began to dramatically move to the right, becoming the country's principal populist movement. By 2012, many commentators noted that Etrurian Way's platform had become increasingly nationalistic, protectionist and nativist, whilst promoting cultural supremacy and advocating policies some considered "overtly authoritarian".
Etrurian Way is currently considered a national conservative party (by some commentators) favoring interventionist policies on economic issues like handling of banks, and a strong conservative stance on social issues and the federation. Others however view the Etrurian Way as a right-wing populist far-right party that openly advocates state capitalism as an alternative to market liberalism or soft interventionism, its positions on welfare chauvinism (only natural born citizens should be entitled to housing benefits and access to the government subsidised health insurance policies) and its rhetoric on Etrurian cultural supremacy, its record in government on attacking the press and independent judiciary, being examples of its nationalist position.
Right-wing populism
The term "populism" refers to political groups which ideologically contrast "the people" against an elite or group of "dangerous others" whom the populists claim threaten the sovereignty of "the people", which the Etrurian Way has identified as the judiciary, the press, non-federal minorities, non-Catholics and wealthy families with ties to political parties. The party's growth is part blamed on economic stagnation of working class and middle class Etrurians despite the country's rapid growth since the 1990s (averaging out at 5.5% from 1994 to 2014) and chronic corruption. Central to its populism is its defence of democracy and its claim to represent the true democratic will of the Etrurian people and its wish to "restore Etrurian pride in the Etrurian people".
The political scientists Giuseppe Amato and Pierluigi Vasca characterised Etrurian Way as an "Anti-Political Establishment" party. The party's rhetoric presents the idea that there is a fundamental divide between the Etrurian population and the elite who govern the country at both the federal and state level. Etrurian Way claims to stand up for ordinary people against this political elite. that steals from the country and stagnates wage growth for their own benefit. However the Etrurian Way is keen to avoid identify professions that constitute "the elite", with the exception of journalists and judges, the Etrurian Way does not openly identify any particular group, with Giuseppe Amato claiming that it is due to the fact that Etrurian Way's senior leadership are most former bankers or business executives.
Etrurian Way uses recurring populist rhetoric—for instance by describing its policies as "common sense" and "honest under God"—in order to present itself as a straightforward and trustworthy alternative to the mainstream parties and their supposedly elusive and complex discourse. The Etrurian Way is also controversial in this often graphic attacks on the mainstream parties, prior to the 2014 elections, the party denounced the Etrurian Federalist Party, Etrurian Socialist Party and the Citizens Alliance of being "identical in their servitude to themselves", claiming that all of the parties are indistinguishable in terms of policies or ideology since "their only ideology is self-enrichment and self-interest".
Nationalism and Etrurian federalism
Political positions
Economy
The party's economic policy initially shifted from neoliberalism to protectionism. This occurred within the framework of a changed view within the party that the world would now be in a struggle between nationalism and globalization. During 2011 and 2012, Francesco Carcaterra complained about the rising number of "social parasites", and called for deregulation, tax cuts, and the phasing-out of the welfare state. As the party gained growing support from the economically vulnerable, it converted towards politics of social welfare chauvinism and economic protectionism.
Since 2014 the party has been more clear in its support for protectionism, but more importantly mercantilism, while she has criticised globalism and capitalism for gross inequality and corruption in Etruria. However prior to the 2016 election, the party transitioned again to a more state capitalist position. During the 2016 election it vowed to assist Etrurian mining and infrastructure with grants and selective tax cuts and energy subsidies. The party vowed to either nationalise key industries or establish partnerships with key corporations as a means of supervising economic production.
In October 2016, Francesco Carcaterra and the party's economic spokesman, Ettore Fioravanzo announced that they would use executive powers to nationalise the energy companies, oil company, railways and mining companies, whilst granting them great deals of autonomy, they would also end the independence of the Etrurian Federal Reserve to "assume complete monetary control".
Law and order
Following the 2010 election and the Etrurian Way’s transition to the right, the party became the “party of order”, citing a dramatic increase in both petty and organised crime across the federation, it pledged to “restore order to our streets and purge the country of thieves, rapists and murderers without mercy”. It vowed to dramatically increase the power of the National Police Service, including granting it the power to confiscate assets and financial holdings of criminals without charge, including people charged with theft.
In 2014, following the year’s general election, the EW promised to restore capital punishment for murder, treason, terrorism, serial rape and paedophilia, causing concern among Etrurian human rights groups. In the same year it promised to increase prison sentences for drug dealers and traffickers from 10 and 15 years to 30 and 35 years respectively.
Social issues
Religion
Etrurian Way upon its founding declared itself a “Catholic Movement for the Faithful” and vowed to protect religion’s role in society and declared outright opposition to calls to have the 50 Etrurian Cardinals in the upper house removed.
In 2010 it vowed to oppose calls for the introduction of civil unions for homosexual couples and any suggestion of same-sex marriage would be opposed “fervently”.
In 2015, the party vowed to increase government funding for the Catholic Church and to introduce a “Church Reference” for prospective civil servants, in which they must receive a note from their local priest confirming regular attendance of Sunday Mass and Confessions.
The party has also vowed to oppose “encroachment of non-Etrurian faiths into schools”, promising to ban schools teaching about Islam, Protestantism and eastern faiths, especially Buddhism.
The Etrurian Way also announced that it would introduce mandatory attendance of all Senators and State Councillors to Sunday Mass at the Basilica Santa Maria in Poveglia.
The party initially vowed to ban contraception, but due to severe backlash by feminist groups and doctors, it dropped the pledge, but vowed to ban abortion, which it did within its second week in power following its 2016 victory. To counter the ban, the party did pledge to increase funding for federal adoption services and to streamline the process.
Electoral results
Lower House
| Election year | National Assembly | Government | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | ||
| 2010 | 5,227,467 | 8 / 680
|
in opposition | ||
| 2014 | 14,084,501 | 94 / 680
|
86
|
in opposition | |
| 2016 | 34,789,462 | 387 / 680
|
303
|
in government | |
Upper house
| Election year | National Assembly | Government | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | ||
| 2010 | 5,156,901 | 4 / 202
|
in opposition | ||
| 2014 | 14,084,501 | 29 / 202
|
25
|
in opposition | |
| 2016 | 34,789,462 | 111 / 202
|
82
|
in government | |