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Capitalist EU is fast coming apart at the seams
Far from isolated incidents, recent developments in Italy and Spain are symptoms of a pan-European crisis, writes KEVIN OVENDEN

IT’S like a game of Whack-a-Mole. No sooner had European leaders congratulated themselves on the formation of an Italian government, after a punishment beating earlier in the week, than the centre-right Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy faced collapse on Friday.

That’s the Rajoy whose repression of democracy in Catalonia earned plaudits in Brussels six months ago and was meant to herald a strengthened right-wing government in Spain.

The “end of the Italian political crisis” after three months without a government amounts only to the creation of a highly conflicted administration whose economic programme runs counter to the deflationary, austerity rules of the eurozone and EU.

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