Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
Paradoxes within the Italian government coalition
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini

“THE paradox of a right-wing government also voted by the workers” is how Italian communists characterise the country’s coalition of incompatible left and right-wing populists.

Just weeks in office Italy’s right-wing “populist” Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is making progress in his strategy to reconfigure Italian politics and cannibalise the voting base of his coalition partner Luigi Di Maio’s Moviemento Quinque Stella (Five Star Movement or 5SM).

New opinion polls show Salvini’s Lega (formerly Lega Nord but rebranded to appeal to voters in Italy’s south) overtaking M5S — and eclipsing the election result — while a clear majority of Italy’s voters back Salvini’s headline-grabbing refusal to allow the Aquarius refugee rescue ship to dock in Italy.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is accompanied by councillor Brian Collins (left) and the Head of Kent County Council, Linden Kemkaran (right) as he poses for a photo with members of Kent County Council, County Hall, Maidstone, July 7, 2025
Features / 17 July 2025
17 July 2025

Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT

Re your message in #nujchapel:  If we website looks like shit, no-one is going to take us seriously, or be inclined to subscribe - that's why I think we have to prioritise the way it looks, especially when the site (editorial-wise) is largely working.  When it comes to the issues you mentioned to me the other day (word count, curly quotes, bylines), there are quick and easy work arounds for them (copy and paste text into BBedit, Word, Pages, wordcount.com, etc. Leave curly quotes, bylines, etc to the web de
Democracy / 2 July 2025
2 July 2025

From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT

Jack Murillo, a Marine veteran, holds a sign in front of law enforcement guarding a federal building on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in Los Angeles
Features / 19 June 2025
19 June 2025

There is no doubt that Trump’s regime is a right-wing one, but the clash between the state apparatus and the national and local government is a good example of what any future left-wing formation will face here in Britain, writes NICK WRIGHT

Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, delivers a speech about Europe's role in a fragmented world in Berlin, Germany, May 26, 2025
Trump's Tariffs / 5 June 2025
5 June 2025

European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde sees Trump’s many disruptions as an opportunity to challenge the dollar’s ‘exorbitant privilege’ — but greater Euro assertiveness will also mean greater warmongering and militarism, warns NICK WRIGHT

Similar stories
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) and AfD co-leader Alice
Features / 3 January 2025
3 January 2025
With federal elections coming up in Germany in February, NICK WRIGHT takes a look at the class forces shaping the policies of the main parties, and sees little hope of a breakthrough for the left
The charismatic leader of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BS
Features / 26 September 2024
26 September 2024
The new party is growing and winning not only due to its refusal to beat the war drums over Ukraine, but because of its fearless scepticism of liberal orthodoxy from cancel culture to immigration, writes NICK WRIGHT
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage smoking outside the Westminste
Features / 12 September 2024
12 September 2024
As angry voters reject austerity, social insecurity and endless war across Europe, the left should be the beneficiary instead of the far right. NICK WRIGHT looks at the ideological hangups holding us back from connecting to these dissenters