THE DEMOLITION MAN

INTERVIEWED earlier this year, Matteo Renzi held up a fencing sabre. Asked on whom he’d most like to use the blade against, he sliced the air and grinned, saying: ‘The banks!’

Since being elected PM in 2014 aged 39, Renzi has been determined to take on the culture of cronyism and bureaucracy which have for so long categorised Italian politics. His enemies call him ‘Il rottamatore’, the demolition man. Renzi agrees: ‘I’m the scrapper. I’m cleaning up the swamp.’

Such modernising idealism have earned him inevitable comparisons to Tony Blair. He was born the second of four children into a Catholic family. His wife is a Latin teacher and they have three children.

At 27 he appeared on Italy’s version of Wheel of Fortune winning ¤30,000.