Italy's people show support for League party's Matteo Salvini

Most Italians view Matteo Salvini, the outspoken leader of the anti-immigrant League party, as the real head of government, with just one in six casting Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in that role, a poll showed on Friday.

The monthly survey in La Repubblica newspaper showed 58 per cent considered Salvini the leader, while 16 per cent picked Conte and 14 per cent chose Luigi Di Maio, who heads the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.

Salvini and Di Maio are deputy prime ministers in Conte's coalition government, which took office in June and which the Demos poll found that 58 per cent of respondents supports.

Salvini enjoys a massive presence on social media, radio and television, employing them all to push his party's populist, anti-immigrant policies.

His has also been the most uncompromising voice of authority emerging from Rome during a standoff with Brussels over a 2019 budget that EU authorities have said violates the bloc's rules and told the government to rework.

Salvini also took over from Conte as Italy's most popular politician, polling a 60 per cent approval rating in October, the same as in September. The prime minister's rating fell to 59 per cent from 61 per cent.

A majority of opposition party voters said they considered Salvini the real leader of the government, including 70 per cent of the Democratic Party and 51 per cent of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia.

Even among 5-Star members, 35 per cent named Salvini as the real leader, just two per cent fewer than Di Maio.

Overall confidence in the government edged down from 62 per cent in September.