Italy's Populists Show How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
- New government rejects migrants and Canada trade pact
- Its requests: more domestic spending, more EU funding
Luigi Di Maio, left, and Matteo Salvini.
Photographer: Giulio Napolitano/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
In their first two weeks in power, Italy’s populist leaders sparked a dispute with France over immigration and threatened to scupper a landmark European Union trade pact with Canada.
It’s hardly the way to make friends with European partners in key deciding positions when Italy seeks approval for the big-spending budget plan it will submit to Brussels in four months.