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Comment by claudius | Hacker News Reader

But leaving the EU will solve none of Italy's problems. Immigration pressure will continue (without any Frontex help) and likely rise with actually closed borders in the north, funding for poorer regions via EU programmes be removed, working labour markets in the north will be closed off to Italian immigrants, tourism will suffer etc etc.

At least the UK could argue that it may get better trade deals, but what's in it for Italy?

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> Immigration pressure will continue

This is not clear, particularly if a sovereign Italy ends up being much more aggressive with detaining, punishing and deporting unwanted entrants.

> At least the UK could argue that it may get better trade deals, but what's in it for Italy?

I don't think there's a rational reason that outweighs the downsides. That doesn't mean it won't be politically advantageous for the party in power.

I'm not arguing for Italy's exit. Just against the assertion that "there's no sign of anyone" other than Britain "leaving" [1].

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17470704

Being rational doesn't have anything to do with it sadly - at least beyond politician logic of "Does it help me gain/keep power?" sense. The big bad EU works well as a domestic scapegoat like Greece claiming being able to print drachma would help when several subcrisises were related to lack of foreign exchange currency for inputs like pharmaceuticals.

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