Salvini’s common touch

While Britain continues to try to struggle its way out of the EU, perhaps it is wise to consider what is happening inside the bloc itself, not just in Paris where the fumes from burning cars fill the apartments and approval ratings for Emmanuel Macron continue to slide as he engages in a national listening exercise (which actually consists of him delivering Chávez-length lectures to the French public). But over the border in Italy, where the tone of the era is being set.

Being both interior minister and deputy prime minister is a tremendous position for Matteo Salvini to be in. It allows him to fulfil some of his election promises — most notably stopping the migrant boat landings — while being able to attribute the failure to perform others (such as deporting half a million illegals) on his coalition partners. These moves give significant fuel to his critics abroad but continue to gain him admirers at home. It is not hard to see why.

In February Matteo Salvini was speaking at a rally in the central Italian coastal town of Giulianova. He arrived onstage with the final bars of ‘Nessun Dorma’ blaring out. Awarded a personalised football shirt in the local club’s colours, he pulled it on over his sweater before addressing the crowd. One moment alone splintered the jubilation. While defending his policy of stopping migrant boat landings, and explaining that in Giulianova the needy must come first, one man in the crowd shouted, ‘Shitty murderer.’

Different politicians would have reacted in different ways to such an interruption, but none would have reacted like Salvini. Unruffled, he turned slightly, as though someone had raised an interesting point. ‘A precious contribution from the gentleman who says I am a shitty murderer. A round of applause for the gentleman,’ he said, ‘who has won ten immigrants for his home.’