Under Matteo Salvini, 45 per cent of Italians say racism is justified – far-right extremism has been normalised

Salvini is beginning to get the same tag ‘everyman’ tag as Nigel Farage, with his League being portrayed as a no-frills option for matter-of-fact people. But he has single-handedly changed Italy

Matteo Salvini's political ambitions hit a big roadblock in August when he was attacked by then prime minister Giuseppe Conte as the coalition between Salvini's far-right League party and the Five Star Movement collapsed after 15 months.

Salvini had gone from pushing for a snap election so his party could take advantage of favourable opinion polls to losing his ministerial position. Always happy, as many populists are, to play the outsider Salvini has returned to opposition. But with that time at the forefront of Italian politics, garnering column inches and helping to guide policy, his ideas have started to become a normal part of Italian political discussion. Salvini has vowed to bide his time and return to power by the ballot box, but even if he doesn't the League's ideals now have a national platform.

Two recent episodes say it all. Brescia striker Mario Balotelli was booed in Verona earlier this month during a Serie A match between Hellas, the hosts. While the rivalry between the two similarly-sized cities is well known, they lie in the middle of the Po Valley, a vast area across northern Italy which Salvini's party likes to identify as 'Padania' (Po-river Land). Padania of course doesn't exist. It's not an official toponym; it doesn't have specific borders. It's a nationalistic ideal. Up until 2015, the League's main goal was to get 'Po-river Land' to secede from Italy; not through revolution or war, but via a muddled mix of initiatives ranging from unofficial referenda to demands for increased autonomy for regions in the north, much to the understandable annoyance of southern Italians. The whole thing never delivered anything tangible.

The other event was a recent poll by the firm SWG, which found more than half of those surveyed said that racist acts were justified at least some of the time. Ten per cent of the 1,500 people asked said racist acts were always justified, while 45 per cent said they were warranted depending on the situation. Another 45 per cent said racist acts were always unacceptable. The survey is conducted every year by SWG and this is the first time in a decade that a majority of the answers did not condemn racism totally.

Thanks to Salvini's use of social media to get his message out and his sharp tongue. Today the League can boast its own local parties about everywhere, stretching as far south as Lecce. Last summer, the League (officially still the Northern League) polled at nearly 50 per cent, with even that considered a conservative estimation by some analysts. Pierluigi Battista, a well-known commentator from the Corriere della Sera wrote the other day: "Salvini was ridiculed once at the backstage of a television programme because he had dared desert a TV show boasting massive ratings as he could not bear to miss speaking at a rally in a Sardinian village of 300 people." A few days later, "the League took polled at 50 per cent of the votes there."

"Salvini," highlighted Battista, "travels everywhere, literally occupies the territory, touches and lets himself be touched by people, shakes hands, multiplies the ritual of selfies with the many who queue up to be photographed with the leader, calls people by their first name, enhances local products, wears sweatshirts sporting the names of myriad of towns, villages, and the tiny agglomerates that are scattered throughout Italy."

You'd be forgiven for thinking of a Mediterranean version of Nigel Farage, if your imagination could stretch as far. Salvini is beginning to get the same tag "everyman" tag as Farage. In a previous piece, Corriere underscored how the leftist Democratic party (PD), League's arch-rivals, have lost all confidence as well as voters. "The [so-called] PD people – 'il popolo del PD' – has died out." In a wider sense the League is being portrayed as the no-frills option for matter-of-fact people. Sensible. Modern. Modern as in suitable for our fast-changing and post-Berlusconi times.

Not just Lega's changed, in fact. Italy has too. The Balotelli case shows the re-emergence of hateful rhetoric and actions beyond the political sphere. Balotelli has been targeted time and again – along with other players in the butt-of-all-jokes Serie A, some of them Italian – because he's black. Other nations have a problem with racism in football, including the UK, and divisive politics does not help.

You can see where this all leads. Normalisation it's called, and increasing numbers seem quite happy with it.