Nicholas Farrell Nicholas Farrell

Will Italy’s warring politicians succeed in shutting Salvini out of power?

What now looks like a distinct possibility in Italy after today’s resignation of Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte is a reminder of a golden rule of modern politics: the liberal left will sleep with any enemy however repulsive to stop right-wing populism.

Matteo Salvini, who is by far Italy’s most popular politician, perhaps forgot this rule when he pulled the plug on the coalition government of his radical-right League party and the alt-left Five Star Movement by tabling a no-confidence vote in Giuseppe Conte, which prompted his resignation.

Either that or he just could not face another day in a coalition government which was unable to agree anything and which was damaging and not helping Italy.

Whatever. The deputy prime minister and interior minister, who loves to brandish a rosary while speaking to the public, must be praying that he has not shot himself and the country in the foot. He became convinced that if he took the initiative it would mean a snap election in October, which, given his popularity in the polls, he would surely win.

However, he swiftly lost the initiative (as I suggested might well happen in my piece in the magazine this week) when it became clear that the ex-communist, nowadays liberal-left, Democratic party was prepared to contemplate forming a new coalition government with its sworn enemy Five Star.

In the polls, the League is way ahead of any other party on 38 per cent and could possibly win a general election on its own, which is unheard of in Italy (a party or coalition requires 40 per cent of the vote to get a majority of seats) – and would definitely win in coalition with former allies Fratelli d’Italia (six per cent) or Forza Italia (eight per cent).

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