It has been a summer of peak populism in Italy. The country’s interior minister, Matteo Salvini, was taking a turn DJ-ing at a beach club and posing for selfies with bikini-clad supporters. The 46-year-old populist leader had been campaigning up and down the country’s beaches, dismissing criticisms from opponents that he should be working, and trusting that most Italians view August as a sacred month-long holiday. Then, in a bold move, he returned to Rome to announce that the coalition government with the Five Star movement in which he serves is no longer viable. His call for elections could see his far-right Northern League party handed a majority. In the meantime, political crisis.

It all has echoes of what is happening in the UK, with Boris Johnson’s government pushing for a no-deal Brexit and creating the impression it is up for a snap election. Johnson and Salvini are both riding a wave of anti-European Union sentiment built around ideas of sovereignty.

Pope Francis, one of the few figures on the international stage willing to tackle the rising tide of populist nationalism head on, has issued a warning about the ideology of “sovereign-ism,” or what Steve Bannon calls the “sovereigntist” movement.