Like Minds: Italy’s Populist Salvini Congratulates President-Elect Bolsonaro of Brazil

Bolsonaro and Salvini
Getty

Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini congratulated Jair Bolsonaro for his election victory in the presidential race on Sunday, celebrating that the Bazilian people had joined other nations in voting out leftist governments.

“Even in  the citizens have sent home the left!” the Italian Interior Minister said. “Good job for [President-elect] , the friendship between our peoples and our governments will be even stronger!!!”

It may not just be shared politics that will forge a strong relationship with the two right-wing politicians, but heritage as President-elect Bolsonaro is of Italian background.

The Brazilian’s grandfather hailed from Anguillara Veneta, in Padua, northern Italy, while his maternal grandparents came from Lucca in Tuscany. Locals of Bolsonaro’s Tuscan homeland are fans of Matteo Salvini, AFP reports, and the region’s president Luca Zaia dubbed the area’s famous son as “Salvini Carioca” for his political closeness to the Italian politician.

Mr won in Sunday night’s run-off against the Socialist Fernando Haddad gaining 55 percent of the vote.

Representing the right-wing Social Liberal Party (PSL) Bolsonaro, a former paratrooper, ran on a campaign of fighting corruption, getting tough on crime, and undoing the socialist policies of his predecessors — all pledges that resonated with the Brazilian people.

The 63-year-old will take office on January first, and has pledged to govern “following the Bible and the constitution” and to defend “the constitution, democracy and freedom”.

“We cannot continue flirting with socialism, communism, populism and the extremism of the left,” he added.

In mid-October, 

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