Italy’s former interior minister Matteo Salvini will take to the streets on Monday in a far-Right 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 far-right League Party, branding them “discriminatory”. Mr Salvini last month sank the coalition government between the League and anti-establishment 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 ssaid. 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.