The End Of European Populists’ Fascination With America

In early April, the researcher Chiara Pagano noted drily that “Italy is now more closed than Matteo Salvini ever dreamed it would be.” She had a point, and we should not be surprised that, back then, many political commentators were convinced that the pandemic would bring a new nationalist moment in Europe, and that right-wing populist parties would be the political beneficiaries of the COVID-19 crisis. This can still happen, but six months into the crisis, various