Fall of Liz Truss gives Italy’s far right a lesson in what not to do

Giorgia Meloni with the leaders of her coalition partners, Silvio Berlusconi, left, of Forza Italia, and Matteo Salvini, right, of the League. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Italy’s rightwing politicians kept a close eye on Liz Truss during her rise and fall. Not for the first time, Westminster has provided a guide for leaders in every European capital, and no more so than in Rome, about how not to make policy.

It wasn’t long after the 2016 Brexit vote that the Italy’s dominant populist forces – the League, the Five Star Movement and the Brothers of Italy – quietly ditched longstanding demands for their own referendum on EU membership.