Meet the hard-right party likely to win Italy’s election

Marco fioravanti’s father died when he was a teenager, and he went to work in a factory to help support his family. But Mr Fioravanti never gave up on his dream of university, eventually winning a degree in political science. By the age of 26 he was a city councillor in his hometown of Ascoli Piceno, a picturesque place where Renaissance palaces nestle by a river winding out of the Apennine mountains. Three years ago he was elected mayor. Every month he makes himself available to voters in a local café. “Locked away in the town hall, you risk losing touch with the problems of the city,” he says.