The pope appears disguised as Zorro as a symbol of opposition to Salvini

ROME.- A crucial day for the future of

Europe

where nearly 400 million people vote to renew the Parliament of the

European Union

in a strong sovereignty and populist winds, the
Italian weekly
L & # 39; Espresso came out with a very curious cover, with

dad Francisco

disguised as Zorro.

Under a picture of the ex-Archbishop of Buenos Aires who wears his white coat, but with cape, hat, mask and sword of Zorro, in photomontage, the title reads: "Zorro Subito". This is a word game with the phrase "Santo Subito", which generally reflects the popular clamor that someone is proclaimed a saint. But he is referring to the fact that the legendary character of Zorro and the pope have become in recent weeks the symbol of opposition to
Matteo Salvini, the strongman of the Italian populist government, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, who, according to all the polls, will win today in the European elections considered in Italy as a virtual country
referendum on his person.

"The banners and masks, the people of the demonstration and the church of Pope Bergoglio who pbades to the opposition, so the vote changes the political scenario: the new power of Salvini and Italy who says no, reads below the main title.

The Zorro has become the symbol of opposition to Salvini since, in a recently published book-biography (published by an editorial of a neo-fascist group), the head of the xenophobic and ultra-modern Liga confessed that one of the first injustices suffered was when a Fox doll was stolen in kindergarten. Such a revelation immediately triggered a new fury in social networks for the figure of Don Diego de la Vega, ideal to ridicule the "captain", as also called Salvini, 46 years old and very skilled in social networks.

It is not for nothing that the stormy electoral campaign that took place in recent weeks in Italy appeared suddenly in the acts of Salvini who, disguised as Zorro, expressed themselves by a peaceful and ironic rejection of their positions. extreme right and xenophobic. They also appeared on balconies of different cities, banners protesting against their presence, which the police quickly forced to withdraw, beyond the freedom of expression.

In this electoral climate marked by a battle between two visions of Europe and Italy, the Argentine pope – defender of the poor, the excluded and immigrants – was also involved.
Totally opposed figure to Salvini, someone who has garnered immense popularity with his policy of closing ports to the boats that rescue the hopeless

Saturday of last week, during a mbad demonstration in Milan, while the Minister of the Interior boasted of having reduced the number of deaths in the Mediterranean, as Pope Francis wants, There were scandals against the Pontiff. The next day, Salvini received strong criticism from the Catholic world, not for that reason, but because he took the rosary, confided in the Virgin and quoted several saints, posing as the champion of Christian values. to their positions of rejection of immigrants. Salvini is close to Donald Trump's former advisor, Steve Bannon, and ultra-traditionalist Raymond Burke's cardinal – we close the pope's criticism – and tries to capture conservative Catholics who do not digest the overtures and style of the Argentine pope.

In an editorial, Marco Damilano, director of
L & # 39; Espresso -week of the same press group
The Republic, center-left and opponent of the current populist government, stresses that in these crucial elections in May, those who have taken up the challenge of Salvini's sovereignty "and its most devastating consequences, which are not political, but cultural," were clean pope priests. He quotes the young priest Don Davide Ferrari, who boarded a ship that rescues migrants; to the Polish cardinal, beggar of the pope,
Konrad Krajevski, who announced the news two weeks ago to reactivate the electricity of a busy building of this capital and Jorge Bergoglio. "Today, it is Pope Francis who interprets this European culture that others fail to defend," Damilano said. "And this is the point of reference of another part of Italy and Europe: the one that welcomes and helps asylum seekers and immigrants, but also the peripheries and abandoned neighborhoods, the sick and disabled people left behind for him
The well-being"