In a land of former vast pastures, where green still stands for northern secession from a shrivelled up south, Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini – an erstwhile separatist and now a nationalist – is the most effective communicator we’ve seen in a long time. His weapons of mass distraction are deadly. His every tweet – one shot one kill. You’d call him a chameleon if he weren’t actually dangerous.
Salvini’s chief occupation is steering people’s attention away from the facts normal individuals couldn’t possibly stomach. Italy is faring badly again: the only Eurozone country going through a recession, with unemployment growing (at 10.7 per cent in February, two points more than France’s, with youth unemployment at 32.8), in a context of an ever-ageing population.
But the green-and-black-shirted man – flirting with the extreme-right is never a one-off mistake – perpetually talks about the dangers of immigration and how monstrous the EU is.
