With his ‘Italians first’ rallying cry and his tub-thumping against Islam and a ‘migrant invasion’, Matteo Salvini has rebranded himself and his party to become both interior minister and joint deputy prime minister.
As leader of the right-wing League, the 45-year-old’s new job allows him to focus on the chief aspects of his election campaign – stopping illegal immigration and deporting those who have already arrived.
Salvini was sworn in as interior minister after striking a last-gasp deal to form a government with the Five Star Movement, an agreement that brought Italy a populist government after nearly three months of post-electoral deadlock.
He took control of the right-wing coalition that won the most votes in March’s election when his League party surpassed ally Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.
Far-right League leader Matteo Salvini (pictured) was named interior minister after his party struck a deal to form a government with the populist Five Star Movement
Since taking over the old Northern League in 2013, Salvini has ridden a wave of public discontent, playing on anti-immigrant sentiment as he sought to shift the party’s image from defender of the wealthy north against its ‘parasite’ south, to that of guardian of Italy’s national sovereignty.
Since Salvini took over the League, nearly 700,000 people have landed in Italy after crossing the Mediterranean, sparking a sense of resentment among many Italians who feel Europe has abandoned them.
Salvini was in 2009 caught on video singing songs about ‘stinking’ Neapolitans and in 2012 said the south did not deserve the euro.
But he represents impoverished southern region Calabria in the Senate and has redirected his regional chauvinism to take the League nationwide.
Born and raised in Milan in 1973, Salvini joined what was then the Northern League in 1990, aged just 17, rising quickly through the ranks.
At the time, the Northern League was a regional party known for its separatist campaign to secede from Italy.
Salvini ran its Radio Padania, the referring to the wealthier northern region they wanted to see independent.
One of his shows was called ‘Never Say Italy’ and in 2011, he won notoriety for boycotting Italy’s 150-year anniversary celebrations, putting his desk outside Milan city hall to show he was working.
‘The Tricolore doesn’t represent me,’ Salvini said of the Italian flag in 2014.
Salvini took control of the right-wing coalition that won the most votes in March’s election when his League party surpassed ally Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia
But by 2018, he was campaigning as far south as Matera in the impoverished Basilicata region, where he promised ‘order, rules, cleanliness’ and railed against ‘out of control’ immigration.
In a video on his Facebook page, which has more than two million fans, Salvini said he would work to ‘stop the landings’ once in power.
He opposes same-sex unions wants to deport foreign criminals and sparked outrage on Monday when he promised a head count of Italy’s Roma community and to throw out those without legal status.
And as talks were under way to form the new government, he posted a photo of himself standing next to a bulldozer on Twitter with the message: ‘We’re working for you.’
Since taking over the League, Salvini has forged alliances with other far-right Europeans like France’s National Front and Dutch anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders.
Despite positive words for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Salvini in 2013 called the EU a ‘gulag’ like the ‘Soviet Union’ saying he would work to try and leave it.
A savvy social media user, he has managed to successfully push his agenda online, updating his followers daily with constant updates, live videos, photos and even pictures of what he eats.
Although happy to talk about his two children – 14-year-old Federico and Mirta, five – he is less happy to discuss his complicated love life.
Currently living with glamorous model and TV presenter Elisa Isoardi, his children are from two previous relationships, one with ex-wife Fabrizia Ieluzzi, a political journalist, and the other with former girlfriend Giulia Martinelli.