By picking a fight with France’s Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s populist leaders have tapped a raw nerve among their countrymen.
Behind the broadsides fired by Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, which prompted the French president to recall his ambassador from Rome last week, is a widely held resentment among Italians at what they see as French arrogance and failure to give Italy its due in everything from diplomacy to the arts.
