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Back me to stop Salvini: Renzi casts himself as Italy's saviour
Source: The Observer
Back me to stop Salvini: Renzi casts himself as Italy’s saviour
As political turmoil grips Rome, the former prime minister tells the Observer of his mission to thwart a far-right takeover
Angela Giuffrida
Sat 17 Aug 2019 14.45 BST Last modified on Sat 17 Aug 2019 16.25 BST
His energetic stint at the helm of Italy’s government was brought to a juddering halt when, in 2016, he was effectively sacked by voters after suffering an embarrassing defeat in a constitutional referendum. Now Matteo Renzi is back, casting himself as the man to save Italy from the potential grip of a far-right government led by the League’s Matteo Salvini and calling on all “responsible politicians” to back him to thwart the extremist threat. He is re-entering the fray, he insists, for the sake of the country’s future – and not to reignite his own career.
“For my personal rating and consensus it would be better to stay silent,” Renzi told the Observer in an exclusive interview last week. “But Salvini must be stopped, and it’s important to give a strong message – there is an alternative.”
Italy, no stranger to political turmoil, has once again been plunged into uncertainty after Salvini, deputy prime minister and leader of the League, announced on 8 August that he was ending his party’s stormy relationship with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), saying it was unworkable due to the incessant quarrelling over policies. Seeking to exploit the League’s growing popularity, Salvini called for snap elections and immediately declared himself a candidate for prime minister, urging supporters to give the League “the strength to take this country in hand and save it”. He took to the campaign trail on the beach, DJ-ing topless and then Instagramming selfies afterwards.
But he hadn’t counted on Renzi scheming to derail him. Renzi, a senator, is spearheading talks between factions of the Democratic party (PD) and the M5S, a longtime foe, with the idea of carving out a new majority that could see the government through the delicate autumn budget period, and possibly longer. At first, the idea seemed unthinkable, with the leader of Renzi’s centre-left PD, Nicola Zingaretti, describing it as “a gift to the dangerous right” and his M5S counterpart, Luigi Di Maio, saying he would never “sit at the table with Renzi”.
-snip-
As political turmoil grips Rome, the former prime minister tells the Observer of his mission to thwart a far-right takeover
Angela Giuffrida
Sat 17 Aug 2019 14.45 BST Last modified on Sat 17 Aug 2019 16.25 BST
His energetic stint at the helm of Italy’s government was brought to a juddering halt when, in 2016, he was effectively sacked by voters after suffering an embarrassing defeat in a constitutional referendum. Now Matteo Renzi is back, casting himself as the man to save Italy from the potential grip of a far-right government led by the League’s Matteo Salvini and calling on all “responsible politicians” to back him to thwart the extremist threat. He is re-entering the fray, he insists, for the sake of the country’s future – and not to reignite his own career.
“For my personal rating and consensus it would be better to stay silent,” Renzi told the Observer in an exclusive interview last week. “But Salvini must be stopped, and it’s important to give a strong message – there is an alternative.”
Italy, no stranger to political turmoil, has once again been plunged into uncertainty after Salvini, deputy prime minister and leader of the League, announced on 8 August that he was ending his party’s stormy relationship with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), saying it was unworkable due to the incessant quarrelling over policies. Seeking to exploit the League’s growing popularity, Salvini called for snap elections and immediately declared himself a candidate for prime minister, urging supporters to give the League “the strength to take this country in hand and save it”. He took to the campaign trail on the beach, DJ-ing topless and then Instagramming selfies afterwards.
But he hadn’t counted on Renzi scheming to derail him. Renzi, a senator, is spearheading talks between factions of the Democratic party (PD) and the M5S, a longtime foe, with the idea of carving out a new majority that could see the government through the delicate autumn budget period, and possibly longer. At first, the idea seemed unthinkable, with the leader of Renzi’s centre-left PD, Nicola Zingaretti, describing it as “a gift to the dangerous right” and his M5S counterpart, Luigi Di Maio, saying he would never “sit at the table with Renzi”.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/17/back-me-stop-salvini-renzi-casts-himself-italy-saviour