Populist basks in polls and flaunts his power paunch
Italy
The government is on the verge of collapse and recession is looming, but Italy is focused not on Rome’s parliament but on the ample midriff of Matteo Salvini, the interior minister and the brightest star of Europe’s right-wing populism.
The head of the far-right League party has done what few other politicians would risk, flaunting his belly on the beach as an authentic Italian asset in his campaign to win power. ‘‘A man with a paunch is a man of substance,’’ he told one admiring crowd.
His rush to exploit soaring public approval – and the pasta paunch – to try to put an end to the coalition government and press for early elections has prompted a crisis, forcing politicians to abandon their holidays this week to debate what happens next.
The power grab may falter, however. ‘‘He has done a stupid thing, he’s miscalculated,’’ said Manlio di Stefano, undersecretary for foreign affairs and member of the antiestablishment Five Star Movement, the League’s coalition partner.
He predicted that Salvini’s rivals would bury their ideological differences to govern together if necessary to keep him from office.
Anything can happen in Italian politics and few would bet against an early autumn election that would give the pro-russian, Eurosceptic Salvini the ‘‘full powers’’ that he wants over a country often described as one of the pillars of the European Union.
The media savvy Salvini, 46, the dominant force of the coalition, has already become Italy’s de facto ruler, pursuing a popular ‘‘Italians first’’ campaign against Brussels and what he calls an ‘‘invasion’’ of illegal immigrants.
He is also starring in what has seemed like a non-stop reality show with his bare-chested beach tour. His girlfriend, Francesca Verdini, 26, was photographed crawling over him on a beach lounger in what Diva e Donna magazine described as ‘‘an ecstasy of love’’. Their first public appearance together had been in March at a screening of Tim Burton’s Dumbo.
Pictures of Salvini snapping selfies with bikini-clad supporters, playing with water pistols or drinking mojitos have put his bare torso centre-stage in the political debate. The ‘‘Proletarian Paunch’’ was how the admiring Libero newspaper from Salvini’s political heartland in the northern city of Milan described it.
According to the polls, his antics on the beaches have paid off: the League is ahead with 38 per cent while Five Star, supposedly the senior coalition partner, has dropped by a half to 17 per cent. For Salvini’s opponents, though, the belly display made him unfit for high office.
– Sunday Times