Italy’s Leaders Are Divided on Policy, United in Fear of One Man
The far-right politician Matteo Salvini has triggered a government crisis, forcing parties that despise one another to contemplate alliances, if only to block his rise.
In the days since the Italian government fell, finding an alternative governing coalition has been less politics and more physics. Italy’s various political forces—right and left, north and south—are divided into 1 million pieces, but are revolving around one center of gravity: Matteo Salvini.
Before withdrawing from the coalition this month, triggering the crisis, Salvini—Italy’s interior minister and the head of the right-wing-populist League party—used his 15 months in government to run a permanent election campaign. He pushed back against the European Union and used an “Italians first” message to rail against immigrants, theatrically closing Italian ports to
