The Most Feared Man In Europe

Matteo Salvini, Italy’s Hard-Line Interior Minister, Wants To Remake The E.U. For Nationalists.

- Vivienne Walt/Rome

AS EVENING FELL ON THE TOWN OF ALZANO Lombardo in northern Italy one Sunday in early September, about 2,000 people crowded into a marquee tent. Anticipation grew as the announcer blared through a loudspeaker over the music, “Il capitano sta arrivando!”—The captain is coming!

Il capitano was Italy’s Matteo Salvini—the far-right Interior Minister whose rocketing rise over just six months has jolted Europe’s establishment and threatens to finally upturn a political system that has reeled under a populist surge for the past three years. When Salvini finally burst onto the stage after dark in jeans and his trademark green sneakers, the crowd was spellbound. For nearly two hours, a beer in one hand, he told the audience he would seize back control of their lives from the European Union’s faceless bureaucrats. “Italians first!” he shouted, to loud cheers.

If Salvini has his way, his campaign to reshape Europe might have only just begun. In a rare, far-ranging interview with TIME in Rome on Sept. 4, Salvini laid out a plan that would not just shake the E.U. to its foundations but also might remake it from the inside out. “Changing Europe is a big goal,” he says. “But I think it is at our fingertips.”