Salvini’s war against immigration is being waged by land and by sea. It is a war against a section of society that makes up over eight per cent of the country’s population.

Italy is a beautiful country, but very strange indeed. And Italian politics is no exception. After the elections on 4 March this year, it took three months before a new government was sworn in. It has now been a month since the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, vowed on the Constitution at the Quirinale Palace.

Italy’s new populist government has attracted interest in the USA, and in particular in the small, but active American Catholic anti-liberal and neo-traditionalist minority. There is a perceptible fascination with the new League-Five Star populist government

This crisis has many causes, proximate and deeper. I should like to suggest one perspective from which to examine them, that of Italy’s approach to European political and economic integration. For the events of the past week revolved around euro-zone membership, in more than one way. 

Ask most analysts and pundits about what the current problem with Italy is and you will likely get a one-word answer: Populism.