Stumping for regional candidates in Tuscany this month, Italy’s former interior minister Matteo Salvini waved around a surgical mask — and pointedly did not wear it. Covid-19 has taken more than 35,000 lives since it struck Italy in January. But now the daily death toll is typically in single digits, and Mr. Salvini, the leader of the anti-immigration League party, wants to put the country back to work. “Italians are being held hostage, kept at a distance, masked,” he hollered, “and meanwhile they let thousands of lowlifes land their boats and do what they want, go where they want, spit, infect. Enough is enough!”
People cheered. But half of them kept their masks on.
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