Just who is Matteo Salvini, who has overtaken his more famous ally Silvio Berlusconi to claim the right to be the next prime minister of Italy?
The Italian general election this past weekend produced no clear winner, but showed a surge in support for anti-establishment parties — including Salvini’s League party, a populist force formerly known as the Northern League, or Lega Nord.
The euroskeptic 5 Star Movement was set to emerge as the biggest party after Sunday’s ballot. But a center-right alliance of Salvini’s League and media tycoon Berlusconi's Forza Italia is expected to take the most seats in the lower house of parliament. That has set up a battle to form a government once parliament opens on March 23.
Salvini, the League’s 44-year-old leader, is increasingly viewed as the next prime minister in a center-right government. He emerged as the alliance’s candidate after Forza Italia failed to match the League’s performance.
Below are five things to know about Salvini, whose party is widely viewed as far-right and anti-immigration.
1. Backs “Italy First.” One of Salvini’s mottos is on par with U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” mantra.
“Our guiding principle is: Italians first,” Salvini said during the election campaign, a Wall Street Journal report noted. “If saying ‘Italians first’ is xenophobic, then I don’t know what to say.”
2. Talks tough about “Italexit” or “Quitaly.” Salvini has often voiced support for the British vote to exit the European Union, saying Italy could be the next country to leave the EU, points out a report by the Daily Express, a U.K. newspaper.
“Why on earth would free people remain prisoners in a cage of absurd laws and regulation, with rigid constraints that humiliate the true needs of the people and their country?” Salvini told the paper.
“With the Italian vote, the EU will have its last chance to reform itself. Otherwise, Brexit will be nothing else than the start of an inevitable crumbling process, with all the consequences and dangers this comes with.”
3. Responds after being berated by Italian mom. One much-discussed moment in the election campaign came when an Italian mother, Gabriella Nobile, posted an open letter on Facebook FB, +2.14% saying her two adopted children from Africa were enduring racist abuse and feeling fearful due to Salvini’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.
In her viral post, she blasted Italians who have “impoverished the culture and values of this beautiful country by making wars against the poor, immigrants, gays, refugees.”
“I will remove from Italy criminals, illegal immigrants and drug dealers, but certainly not children!” Salvini said in response to her post. He also suggested chatting over coffee, a BBC report noted: “Since we both live in Milan, I would be happy to offer you a coffee at the park, while our children play together.”
The League leader views his party’s use of social media as a key to their success:
"Thank god for the internet, thank god for social media, thank god for Facebook" – Matteo Salvini https://t.co/rzi7EnlELm
— Alberto Nardelli (@AlbertoNardelli) March 5, 2018
4. Talks tough about abandoning the euro, too. Salivini has described the euro EURUSD, +0.4215% as “one of the biggest economic and social crimes ever committed against humanity,” according to a Reuters report.
The League party has promised to end Italy’s usage of the shared currency, but its center-right allies have different views.
See: Italy now poses an ‘existential threat to the eurozone’ — analyst reaction
5. Not just northern these days. Salvini’s Milan-based party, long called the Northern League, or Lega Nord, previously campaigned for northern secession. It derided southerners as beggars, thieves and good-for-nothing rednecks, a Bloomberg report points out.
But Salvini lately has managed to attract support in southern Italy, and the party has dropped the regional bit from its name, though many still call it the Northern League.