Matteo Renzi breezes through the gilded wooden doors in jeans, D'Acquasparta
trainers and rolled-up shirt sleeves. "Today, I am tie-less," he
announces, disingenuously apologetic, perhaps, for a man with a
much-photographed leather jacket.
Dress-down Friday? "Absolutely," he replies in English and grins. In a salon with a long history and a one-note colour scheme – gold – the contrast in style between Palazzo Chigi and its occupant has probably never been more striking. Yet, sitting back on a delicate, gleaming-legged sofa, Italy's cocksure young prime minister could not seem more at home.
Few mainstream politicians will look back at last week's European elections with anything other than gloom. From London to Paris to Copenhagen, leaders on the centre-left and centre-right were dealt a bloody nose by voters who chose instead to throw in their lot with populists, Eurosceptics, and the far right.
In Rome, however, a different story played out. In its first election with Renzi as leader, his centre-left Democratic party (PD) beat all expectations to come not only first, but first by an astonishing margin of almost 20 points.
With almost 41% of the vote, the PD had performed better than any Italian party since 1958. It had left its chief rival, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), in the dust. It had won more votes than any other party in the EU and had become the second-largest force in the European parliament.
After years of lectures, humiliations and knuckle-rappings, Italy was back on the European stage, credibility – so the government said – restored. And Renzi, a 39-year-old who not even six months ago was the ambitious mayor of a provincial city, finds himself not only prime minister but one of the most important advocates for Europe in a fearful and crisis-struck union.
Read more: Is Matteo Renzi the man to save Europe's soul? | World news | The Observer
Dress-down Friday? "Absolutely," he replies in English and grins. In a salon with a long history and a one-note colour scheme – gold – the contrast in style between Palazzo Chigi and its occupant has probably never been more striking. Yet, sitting back on a delicate, gleaming-legged sofa, Italy's cocksure young prime minister could not seem more at home.
Few mainstream politicians will look back at last week's European elections with anything other than gloom. From London to Paris to Copenhagen, leaders on the centre-left and centre-right were dealt a bloody nose by voters who chose instead to throw in their lot with populists, Eurosceptics, and the far right.
In Rome, however, a different story played out. In its first election with Renzi as leader, his centre-left Democratic party (PD) beat all expectations to come not only first, but first by an astonishing margin of almost 20 points.
With almost 41% of the vote, the PD had performed better than any Italian party since 1958. It had left its chief rival, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), in the dust. It had won more votes than any other party in the EU and had become the second-largest force in the European parliament.
After years of lectures, humiliations and knuckle-rappings, Italy was back on the European stage, credibility – so the government said – restored. And Renzi, a 39-year-old who not even six months ago was the ambitious mayor of a provincial city, finds himself not only prime minister but one of the most important advocates for Europe in a fearful and crisis-struck union.
Read more: Is Matteo Renzi the man to save Europe's soul? | World news | The Observer
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