You could be forgiven, if your experience of Italian politics is limited to an early morning skim through Italian Twitter for thinking that it is a barrel of laughs. Men in Zorro masks hanging banners from balconies. Rude slogans about Leghista Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini. Upside down slogans.
Why! It is almost as though the UK elected a right wing buffoon Prime Minister, and the country then corpsed itself in a snort of collective derision. That may be a fair comparison. Because like Boris Johnson, Salvini's public persona is that of amiable buffoon while, behind the scenes, he is working hard to take Italy rightwards, fast.
And over the last few weeks, cutting through the forced bonhomie has been something else, something far more sinister that resembles nothing less than a serious attack on democratic values in Italy. The politicisation of the police, combined with a growing willingness by state organs to clamp down on any protest.
