As the European elections draw closer, opinion polls in Italy have put populist Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s Lega party above the 30 per cent mark, fueling speculation that his party could become the largest in the European Parliament.
According to Roberto Weber, head of the opinion research institute Ixe, Salvini and Lega will easily dominate the European elections in Italy, as no other parties running are even close to them in recent polling data, he said when speaking to Swedish newspaper Ystads Allehanda.
“There are no opinion institutions here that believe that Lega gets below 30 percent. So they are more than twice as large, although the EU election is different from the national elections. But it is still a strong tailwind for Salvini,” Weber told the paper.
Italy, Europe Elects projection:
‘If there was European election today…’
Number of Seats (MEPs)
LEGA-ENF: 26 (+20)
M5S-EFDD: 18 (+7)
PD-S&D: 16 (-10)
FI-EPP: 8 (-2)
FdI-ECR: 5 (+1)+/- with the current composition#EP2019 #Europee2019 #ElezioniEuropee2019 #ElezioniEuropee
— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) May 13, 2019
According to Weber, Salvini has filled a gap in Italian politics that was once held by former Prime Minister and current leader of Forza Italia, Silvio Berlusconi. “Salvini builds the same voter base that Berlusconi did in the early 2000s,” he said and claimed some Italians had a need for a strong leader.
Weber also added that Italians look at domestic politics, rather than European Union politics, and that many are concerned with issues like mass migration, jobs and a weak Italian economy overall.
full story at https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/05/13/salvinis-lega-on-course-to-become-largest-single-party-in-european-parliament/