Renzi has also offered austerity-beleaguered citizens short-term palliatives, such as a tax cut that gives an extra €80 ($109) to Italy’s lowest earners. Add to that extraordinary rhetorical talent and a pledge – on which he has largely delivered – to “bulldoze” the political class, and it is no wonder that, in the recent European Parliament election, his Democratic Party secured a remarkable 40.8% of the popular vote – more than any other national party.