A recent poll found that former Minister of the Interior and current leader of the right-wing populist League party, Matteo Salvini, is the most trusted Italian politician.
Matteo Salvini topped the list of most trusted politicians in Italy, with 39 per cent of respondents saying they back the Italian firebrand, reported Il Giornale. He currently leads Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who has the support of 35 per cent of the Italian public.
Head of the right-wing party The Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Melonile, came in at third, with 29 per cent saying they trusted her.
The poll conducted by Agorà, an Italian current affairs show, also showed that Salvini’s populist League remained the most popular party, with 31.8 per cent supporting.
Both parties comprising the current left-wing coalition government in Italy, the Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party, polled under 20 per cent.
Tens of thousands gathered on Saturday for an “Italian Pride” rally in Rome that saw Salvini joined by Giorgia Melonile and former prime minister and head of the Forza Italia party, Silvio Berlusconi.
Addressing his supporters, Salvini said: “This is the Italy that works and suffers, that dreams and hopes.”
As supporters shouted her name from the piazza, Melonile said: “We are people. And we have our identity. I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, and I am Christian, and you cannot take that away from me.”
A 61-year-old woman who attended the rally said to the Associated Press: “We ask Matteo (Salvini) to lead us to the polls as soon as possible. And once we’ll be finally allowed to vote, we’ll win big.”
If Salvini, Melonile, and Berlusconi’s respective parties strike an alliance, pollsters believe they would easily have enough support to gain control of the Italian parliament in the next election.