What the UK left can learn from Italy’s new Sardines movement

The progressive group provided something that had been missing from the left political scene: vibrancy, belonging, and an emotional narrative.

By Paul Mason

A demonstrator holds a European flag, on which he has fixed paper cutouts of sardines, during a demonstration of the Sardine movement, formed to oppose the far-right Lega, on 14 December 2019 in Rome. (Photo By Getty Images)

“It’s not a regional election – it’s a lifestyle choice.” That was how Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s far-right Lega party, trailed his party’s bid to oust the left from its traditional stronghold of Emilia-Romagna.

Following Lega’s advance at the 2018 Italian general election, Salvini was so confident of victory that he taunted the Democratic Party’s (PD) local leadership: revered and legendary old communists, he declared, “would today cross the street” to avoid meeting the present-day leadership. Today, said Salvini, the old communists would vote for Lega.