Section:GDN 1N PaGe:32 Edition Date:190815 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 14/8/2019 19:41 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Thursday 15 Aug ust 2019
(^32) World
Analysis
Angela Giuff rida
Salvini was riding high, but has
poster boy for Italy’s far right
suddenly overplayed his hand?
T
his time last week
Italy’s far-right
deputy prime
minister, Matteo
Salvini, seemed
invincible. His
League party had managed to push
the latest version of its draconian
anti-immigration bill through
parliament after securing a vote
of no-confi dence in the prime
minister.
It then claimed victory after
its coalition partner, the anti-
establishment Five Star Movement
(M5S), failed to block an Alpine
rail link with France. Italians have
been squabbling over the TAV
rail project for 30 years, but for
Salvini the clash was the ideal
catalyst for liberating his party
from the tempestuous coalition.
Seeking to capitalise on the League’s
fl ourishing popularity, he called
for snap elections and immediately
declared himself a candida te for
prime minister, urging supporters in
the coastal town of Pescara to give
the League “the strength to take this
country in hand and save it”.
“Italians need certainty and a
government that does things, not
a Mr No ,” he said after announcing
last Thursday that he was pulling
the plug on the coalition. It was
pointless carrying on because of all
the quarrelling , he said.
A week later, Salvini’s path to the
premiership looks less than smooth
after the League’s attempts to call
a no-confi dence vote in the prime
minister, Giuseppe Conte, were
thwarted on Tuesday by M5S and
the centre-left Democratic party
(PD). Conte has been summoned
to parliament next Tuesday to
address the crisis and face a possible
confi dence vote , but the outcome is
now uncertain.
Salvini’s strategy was obvious. He
needed to capitalise on the League’s
growing popularity. Backing for the
party has leapt from 17.4% to around
38% since the game-changing March
2018 general election , while support
for M5S has halved. The shift in
the balance of power within the
coalition was confi rmed after the
European elections in May, when
the League became Italy’s biggest
party with 34% of the vote.
Salvini’s rise has been aided by
relentless campaigning on social
media , rall ies across Italy with his
“man of the people” style and the
demonising of so-called enemies –
migrants, Roma people, Muslims,
leftwing “do-gooders”
Demographics played a
signifi cant role in his EU election
campaign as part of his nativist
vision of revers ing Italy’s shrinking
population and protecting Italian
identity. He regularly kisses
crucifi xes and thanks the Virgin
Mary for his successes, while
attacking Pope Francis. All of this
has appealed to a support base
yearning for a strongman to restore
pride in Italy.
Now though, the emerging
relationship between former rivals
▲ Matteo Salvini, leader of the
League , may have been thwarted by
former rivals coming together
23% 16.5 38 6.5 8 8
Source: Noto Sondaggi
A Noto Sondaggi survey on voting
intentions has put the League
at 38%
- Democratic party • Five Star Movement • League
- Forza Italia • Brothers of Italy • Others
M5S and the PD could jeopardise
Salvini’s plans.
Spearheaded by the former prime
minister and PD senator, Matteo
Renzi, factions from each party have
been in talks about carving out a
majority in parliament that could
see the government th rough to
the end of its term in 2023. The PD
leader, Nicola Zingaretti, opposed
the suggestion this week but is now
warming to it.
Recognising the threat, Salvini
made another surprise move during
the senate debate on Tuesday,
saying he would be willing to accept
a proposal by the M5S leader, Luigi
Di Maio, to cut the number of
parliamentarians from 951 to 605 –
on condition the reform was swiftly
followed by new elections.
“It’s a very cheap tactical game
toward M5S and a way to bide time
while Salvini invents a new line of
communication to maintain his
popularity,” said Mattia Diletti,
a politics professor at Rome’s
Sapienza University.
Salvini’s moves to revive a
coalition with Silvio Berlusconi’s
Forza Italia and the smaller far-right
Brothers of Italy also hit a stumbling
block when Forza Italia said it would
not contest elections on a single
electoral list or scrap its party logo.
Berlusconi could easily shift his
support to the opposition if he is not
granted status within the coalition.РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS