Italy's Matteo Salvini Hopes To Lead Nationalist Wave In Upcoming European Elections

Ahead of elections this week for a new European Parliament, 11 populist leaders rallied last Saturday in Milan's Piazza Duomo. They vowed to reassert their national sovereignty by wresting control from European Union bureaucrats headquartered in Brussels. Their host: Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy's far-right League party and Europe's rising populist star.

As a recording played the late tenor Luciano Pavarotti singing Puccini's Nessun Dorma aria, with its refrain of "Vincerò!" (I will win), Salvini took center-stage before a crowd of some 20,000 cheering fans.

Clutching a rosary and flanked by France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen and 10 other European ethno-nationalists, Salvini dismissed his critics. "In this square, there are no racists, no fascists," he said.

"The extremists are those who led Europe into insecurity and poverty — Merkel, Macron and Soros," Salvini said, referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros, a frequent target of the far right.

One of Salvini's biggest fans is Steve Bannon, President Trump's former chief strategist.