Matteo Salvini is a member of Lega (the League) since 1990, he has been Federal Secretary of the Party since December 2013, after having held a number of political and institutional roles, starting with that of city councilor in Milan, where he was elected for the first time in 1993.

Elected to the Chamber of Deputies (Lower House) in 2008, he opted the following year for the role of Member of the European Parliament, a position to which he was elected again in 2014.

Senator of the Republic since March 2018, he was appointed Minister of the Interior and Vice-President of the Council of Ministers (i.e. Deputy Prime Minister) on 1st June, 2018.

In his continuous electoral tour full of selfies, Matteo Salvini called “the Captain” by his supporters, often ran into embarrassing encounters, ranging from the world of organized crime to the neo-fascist galaxy.
Famous is the photo at the [restaurant](https://www.nextquotidiano.it/matteo-salvini-cena-casapound/) with the leaders of Casapound in 2015, at the end of a demonstration of the political group “Sovereignty”, a cartel between LEGA and the “fascists of the third millennium” for the European elections.

More recent, however, are the [cases](https://www.repubblica.it/politica/2021/12/22/news/salvini_selfie_frequentazioni_imbarazzanti-331185490/) of the No Vax of Palermo Filippo Accept, arrested for false vaccinations, portrayed in a photo with the secretary of the League at dinner months ago; and the other with the ultra Milan leader Luca Lucci, who was also immortalized in a fraternal greeting with the Captain when he was even Minister of the Interior and he too was arrested five days ago, in his case for drug trafficking.

Salvini’s xenophobic and security propaganda unfortunately found confirmation in the policies launched as Interior Minister of the Giuseppe Conte government in 2018 with the so-called ‘Security Decrees’. These provide a tightening of immigration rules, the cancellation of some reception routes, fines to NGOs, removal measures or access bans called ‘Daspo’ and above all more severe penalties for manifestations of discomfort and dissent, such as demonstrations with street occupation or housing occupation