Matteo Salvini (Italian pronunciation: [matˈtɛːo salˈviːni]; born 9 March 1973) is an Italian politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of the Interior from 1 June 2018 to 5 September 2019. He is Federal Secretary of Italy's Lega Nord (Northern League) party since December 2013. He is a Senator in the Italian Senate since March 2018. He previously served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the constituency of North-West Italy from 2004 to 2018.Salvini has been considered a hardline Eurosceptic politician, holding a starkly critical view of the European Union, especially of the euro. He opposes illegal immigration into Italy and the EU as well as the EU's management of asylum seekers. He is also considered one of the main leaders of the populist wave which shook Europe during the 2010s and a member of the neo-nationalist movement, which is a rightist ideology that emphasizes de-globalization, nativist and protectionist stances.Salvini is nicknamed "The Captain" (Il Capitano) by his supporters. During his time serving as Deputy Prime Minister, many international political commentators and newspapers, such as The Guardian, The New York Times, the Financial Times, The Economist, and The Huffington Post, characterized him as a strongman and the most influential politician in Italy after the 2018 elections. With the advent of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Salvini's stance as one of the strongest supporters of Russia's president Vladimir Putin in Europe has been called into question.
