Led by a nice looking old boy who looks like he's raided Michael Portillo's wardrobe, the movement represents the virus sceptics and the views evinced here by many of you; that the Wuhan virus is just a bad flu, lockdown was the worse error, the fake news media are complicit and the elite are still refusing to cede power to the voters. Reasonable and mainstream views - which may, or may not, turn out to be the case, once the evidence is in. So far the first two are not proven, but there's a case to answer, as they say. Oh, and buried deep in the P.EU piece is a throwaway line that the old boy wants to take Italy out of the EU and ditch the Euro. Not really important at all.
Of course Politico.EU is quick to lump in anti-vaxxers and the 5G tinfoil hats with Pappalardo's movement - part of establishing the opposing narrative - and the other side, the communists, socialists, establishment and authoritarians, some of whom would like to see nations locked down under police control for ever, are already grunting about making 'Virus denial' a crime. They couldn't find any Italian fascists amongst the crowd in this report, but give them time. And if there aren't any, well, the media are inventive enough to dress a few tattooed skinheads in orange HiVis vests for the shots.
A minor event, a few hundred people, but like the ripples that precede the wave, it's there on the horizon. Lines and narratives are being drawn. I'll park it there.
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| Portillo with a socially-distancing Ipswich yottie |
