WITH a rosary in one hand and a copy of the New Testament in the other, the leader of the Northern League, Matteo Salvini, swore himself in on February 24th as Italy’s next prime minister. No matter that Italy’s general election was not to be held until March 4th, or that his party was polling just 13% of the national vote. One day, he told his audience at a rally in the cathedral square of Milan, they would look back and say: “I was there.”
Acting like a prime minister before becoming one is not uncommon in Italy among those who aspire to the job. The day before, Luigi Di Maio, candidate of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), had gone to the Quirinal palace in Rome to tell the president, Sergio Mattarella, that he would soon be sending him the names of his cabinet. Embarrassingly for Mr Di Maio, the president chose not to receive him. Worse still, one of his putative ministers turned the job down.
The originator of this optimistically anticipatory technique was...Continue reading
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