The right-wing Italian party Lega continues to march from strength to strength under the leadership of Matteo Salvini. It's increasingly clear that Salvini is who Trump promised to be, as he is actively building a movement and sees his rise to power as just the beginning of a process, rather than an end in itself.

Right-wing parties triumphed in a regional election in central Italy on Monday in a contest seen as a key test for the European Parliament elections in May. A candidate from Brothers of Italy, a small far-Right party backed by the Right-wing League party and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, won the election in the mountainous Abruzzo region. After taking around 48 per cent of the vote, Marco Marsilio was elected the new governor of the region, ousting a centre-Left coalition. The anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which governs with The League at the national level, performed dismally, winning just 20 per cent of votes – half of what it garnered in the region during last year’s general election. The result will inflame worries within Five Star that it has been eclipsed since forming a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s League last June. Since then, the pugnacious interior minister has doubled his party’s electoral support while that of Five Star has declined. [Right-wing parties triumph in Italian regional election in key test ahead of European Parliament vote, by Nick Squires, Telegraph, February 11, 2019]

Salvini has denied rumors that he is going to dump the Five Star movement and build a coalition purely from the Italian Right. Of course, no matter what he says now, much will depend on how his party does in the European Parliament elections this May.

Journalists are naturally outraged to see patriots winning elections, which is another good sign. Note the framing the AFP uses. [Key words put in bold by this writer.]

Italy's far-right League has triumphed over its Five Star Movement coalition partner in a regional vote seen as a test of strength ahead of crunch European elections, results showed Monday. The vote in the Abruzzo region laid bare the difficulties for the Five Star Movement (M5S), which was the country's leading party at last year's general election but has seen its popularity recede since taking power in an uneasy coalition with the League. The anti-immigration League, led by hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, won 28 percent in Abruzzo's local elections on Sunday, compared with 19 percent for M5S, the interior ministry said... Five Star candidate Sara Marcozzi said it was "not a defeat for M5S but for democracy". [Italy's far-right League trumps M5S in bellwether regional poll, February 11, 2019]

Is a party really "far-right" if it is the party that wins the most public support? It seems like the "far-right" party is really the mainstream, and it is the other parties that are "far-left."

Also, notice the use of "democracy" to describe not a system in which the public elects its leaders, but a system in which leftists rule no matter what the people actually say.