Matteo Salvini to join protest against Italy’s new government as it moves to undo hardline policies

The former deputy prime minister is a formidable obstacle to the new regime, as the country’s most popular politician.

Josephine McKenna, Rome,  James Crisp, Brussels correspondent

Daily Telegraph, 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 • 4:43PM

Italy’s former interior minister Matteo Salvini took to the streets on Monday in an ethnonational protest against the new coalition government’s moves to undo his signature hardline policies.

Last week the 21 members of the new cabinet signalled a softer approach to immigration at their first meeting.

One of their first moves was to challenge anti-migrant measures introduced in the northeastern region of Friuli Veneto Giulia, a stronghold of Mr Salvini’s [...] League Party, branding them “discriminatory”. 

Mr Salvini last month sank the coalition government between the League and [...] Five Star Movement (5SM). His plan to return as prime minister via an early election was foiled by the 5SM agreeing to join a new coalition with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).

“Challenged by the new government,” Mr Salvini tweeted in response. “It does not harm Salvini, but the citizens.”

Mr Salvini used his role in the previous government to promote his party’s aggressive stance against the European Union and wage war on charity vessels saving migrants in the Mediterranean.

The new interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, an unaligned technocrat, has the delicate task of adapting Mr Salvini’s handiwork without scrapping the policies that have made him the country’s most popular politician -  with support still running above 30 percent.

Ms Lamorgese is a 65-year-old civil servant who has served interior ministers from the left and the right in the past.  Unlike her predecessor, she does not use social media and few are sure of what to expect.

“We could see the partial removal of the previous government’s security decrees that allowed for the seizure of migrant ships and arrest of NGOs,” Lorenzo Castellani, political science professor at Rome’s Luiss University, told the Telegraph.

“The new government is trying a softer approach but the electorate has not changed its mind on immigration,” he said.

The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, welcomed the new government last week but some Brussels diplomats expressed their reservations.

“To be honest we are not sure it will make a difference,” said one EU diplomat. The moment she (the minister) lets a migrant ship dock she will be slaughtered by Mr Salvini.”

Mr Salvini has told his supporters to keep their heads up. He is focusing on regional elections in October that will give voters their first chance to say what they think of the political winds of change.