India, Sept. 9 -- There is something very gratifying about watching a political thug get hoist with his own petard. Matteo Salvini, the hard-Right populist who thought he could force an early election and become Italy's strongman by breaking up the coalition Government he served in, has publicly cut his own throat. And almost everybody is enjoying the spectacle.

It's not even a year-and-a-half since the last Italian election , when the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S) and Salvini's ultra-nationalist League party got enough seats to form a Government together. They had very little in common, but political power is a great lubricant and they managed to rub along together with no major disasters for 18 months.

What caused the br...