Italy’s new centrist government isn’t the end of Matteo Salvini’s dreams of power

Leader of Lega party, outgoing deputy-Premier and Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini (R) blows a kiss after a meeting with Italian President on the second day of consultations of political parties, on August 22, 2019 at the Quirinal palace in Rome. - The Italian President began talks with key political leaders on August 21 to see if a new coalition can be formed, as a proposed alliance between the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and opposition centre-left Democratic Party appeared to gain traction. (Photo by Vincenzo PINTO / AFP) (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)

From the outset of August it was clear that Italian politicians would be denied their usual month off. As his far-right Lega party polled over 35 per cent, Matteo Salvini’s rallies at beach resorts around central Italy were transparent preparations for an early general election. But when the interior minister made his move on 8 August — declaring his intention to pass a vote of no confidence in Giuseppe Conte’s government — things started to go wrong.

Salvini expected that the end of the populist administration, formed by Lega and the Five Star Movement (M5s) in June 2018, would force a snap election. Conte, a law professor and an independent, has no parliamentary base of his own, and M5s controls fewer than one in three seats. Yet just days after Conte was forced to resign, he has returned as prime minister, arranging a new governing coalition between M5s and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).