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ANALYSIS: How Italy’s far right was stalled by the coronavirus crisis

Right-wing populist League party leader Matteo Salvini has seen his popularity fall as the coronavirus pandemic drowned out his anti-immigrant message - but will he make a comeback as Italy leaves lockdown behind?

Published: 9 June 2020 10:24 CEST

ANALYSIS: How Italy's far right was stalled by the coronavirus crisis

(R-L): League party leader Matteo Salvini, head of Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni and co-founder of Forza Italia, Antonio Tajani, march in Rome on June 2nd. Photo: AFP

Salvini is now less visible in the media after being almost omnipresent last year – before he brought his own coalition government down in a botched bid to become prime minister.

The then-deputy prime minister and interior minister collapsed the League's coalition with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) in a power grab that became a major tactical blunder.

His former M5S allies instead in September formed a government with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), sending Salvini into his more habitual role in opposition.

Since then, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's approval rating has soared to 60 percent while Salvini's has plummeted to 30 percent.

Around 26 percent of Italians now say they would vote for his League party, down from its 34 percent score in 2019's European Parliament elections, but remaining Italy's single most popular party.

“His favourite theme of immigration has been pushed to the background by the coronavirus crisis,” explains Vincenzo Galasso of Milan's Bocconi University.

Salvini has also flip-flopped on the epidemic, initially being against lockdown before making a U-turn in the face of the devastating facts.

He was also widely criticised after calling for churches to reopen for Easter, at the height of the pandemic, in an attempt to capitalise on his staunch Catholic image.

“He wasn't able to differentiate himself from what the government was doing, which he always did previously with the immigration question,” said Galasso.

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Even within his own party, the Veneto region's president Luca Zaia has seen his popularity rise spectacularly thanks to his exemplary management of the crisis in the hard-hit northern region.

But Salvini is determined to claw his way back to power, renewing his call for early elections, accusing the government of “not having clear ideas”.

“Let's ask the people to vote for a government that will last five years and has clear ideas,” Salvini said in an interview published Monday in the daily La Stampa.

Salvini, known for his frequent travelling on the party campaign trail, has also effectively started campaigning again, visiting Campania in the south last week and central regions Marche and Abruzzo this week.

Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini at a far-right rally in Rome on June 2nd. Photo: AFP

Salvini tried to remobilise along with Giorgia Meloni, the head of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, with a rally in Rome on June 2nd, but it did not go according to plan.

“People didn't respect social distancing rules at all,” said Alessandro Giacone, historian at Bologna University.

This was roundly criticised, giving the impression of a leader who is not always prudent.”

Meloni herself has seen her party's popularity shoot up from 4.3 percent of votes in 2018 elections to 14.6 percent of voter intentions today.

Just 36 percent of Italians say today that they would vote for the ruling PD and M5S, compared to the 51 percent they garnered in the 2018 elections.

Giacone says the League and other right-wing parties would probably win snap elections.
“Everything depends on what kind of alliance Salvini will make,” he said.

“He's hesitating between two positions. He would like to form a sovereigntist anti-European alliance (with Meloni) but there are those within his party who want a more moderate position,” along with Silvio Berlusconif, the ormer centre-right prime minister and Salvini's longtime political ally, says Giacone.

That's why “his political position is not very clear at the moment.”

By AFP's Céline Cornu

See more of The Local's reporting on Italian politics here.

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The strike comes after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama — who is close to Meloni — called a top RAI editor to complain about a television report into Italy’s controversial migration deal with his country.

The Usigrai trade union called the strike from May 6 to May 7 saying talks with management had failed to address their concerns.

It cited numerous issues, including staff shortages and contract issues, but in first place was “the suffocating control over journalistic work, with the attempt to reduce RAI to a megaphone for the government”.

It had already used that phrase to object to what critics say is the increasing influence over RAI by figures close to Prime Minister Meloni, who leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II.

However, another union of RAI journalists, Unirai, said they would not join what they called a “political” strike, defending the return to “pluralism” at the broadcaster.

Funded in part by a licence fee and with top managers long chosen by politicians, RAI’s independence has always been an issue of debate.

But the arrival in power of Meloni — leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, who formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia — redoubled concerns.

Tensions erupted at the weekend amid accusations RAI censored a speech by a leading writer criticising Meloni ahead of Liberation Day on April 25, when Italians mark the defeat of Fascism and the Nazis at the end of World War II.

Both RAI’s management and Meloni have denied censorship, and the premier posted the text of the monologue on her social media.

In another twist, Albania’s premier confirmed Thursday he called senior RAI editor Paolo Corsini about an TV report on Sunday into Italy’s plans to build two migration processing centres on Albanian territory.

Rama told La Stampa newspaper the report was “biased” and contained “lies” – adding that he had not raised the issue with Meloni.

The Report programme claimed the costs of migrant centres, which are under construction, were already “out of control” and raised questions about criminals benefiting from the project.