Italy's far-right: from pro-Russian Crimean referendum "monitors" to North Korea admirers

[pampango]

Right-wing politicians have warm words for the clean streets, sense of community and respect for elders after trip to Pyongyang

Welcome to the land where the streets are full of children playing and there is no litter on the ground. Where there is respect for elders and “the state provides everything”. A land where there is “a splendid sense of community”.

Sound familiar? It may not be the usual verdict on North Korea; there is, for instance, a distinct absence of any reference to forced labour, hunger or personality cults. But this is North Korea nonetheless – as seen through the eyes of one of Italy’s political party leaders.

Matteo Salvini, head of the right-wing Northern League, has returned from a five-day visit to North Korea and has warm words for the country, which, according to the United Nations, “does not have any parallel in the contemporary world” in terms of human rights abuses.

“I am happy to have gone,” Salvini told Italian daily Corriere della Sera. “I saw a splendid sense of community. Many children playing in the streets and not not on play stations. A great respect for older people. Things that no longer exist in Italy.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/03/north-korea-italy-northern-league

There was a time when Russia’s friends were principally on the left. There are still some pro-Moscow communists, for instance in Greece. But these days the Kremlin’s chums are most visible on the populist right. The crisis in Ukraine has brought out their pro-Russian sympathies, most overtly when a motley group of radicals was invited to vouch for Crimea’s referendum on rejoining Russia. The “observers” included members of the National Front, Jobbik, the Vlaams Belang in Belgium, Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ), Greece's Golden Dawn and Italy’s Northern League ... . They declared that the ballot, denounced by most Western governments as illegitimate, had been exemplary.

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21601004-why-europes-populists-and-radicals-admire-vladimir-putin-russias-friends-black

Makes you wonder if these guys have any idea what right and left even mean.