Matteo Renzi, Italy’s centre-left prime minister, has warned that German-driven eurozone austerity policies are fanning the flames of populism, leading to political paralysis and electoral setbacks across the continent for incumbent governments.

In an interview with the Financial Times at his Rome office the day after voters in Spain slashed the majority in parliament enjoyed by centre-right prime minister Mariano Rajoy, leaving him struggling to form a new government, Mr Renzi said there was one main lesson to be learnt.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to my friend Mariano but I know that those who have been in the front line of being the faithful allies of the politics of rigour without growth have lost their jobs,” Mr Renzi said.

“It happened in Warsaw, though the circumstances were very particular there, it happened in Athens, it happened in Lisbon. Let’s see what happens in Madrid,” he added.

Mr Renzi’s warning came as the 40-year old former mayor of Florence, who came to power in February 2014 with a mission to reform Italy, has sharpened his attacks on the EU — and Angela Merkel’s Germany — in the face of drooping poll numbers and rising populist sentiment domestically.

In recent weeks, Italy has clashed with Brussels and Berlin on a variety of fronts, from the contentious building of a gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, to demands that Italy do more to fingerprint migrants, to the establishment of a common bank deposit insurance scheme and Italy’s new budget law, which has been criticised for being too expansive.

“I have esteem for Angela, we have an excellent personal relationship,” Mr Renzi said. “But we have to be frank … Europe has to serve all 28 countries, not just one,” he added.

I don’t know what’s going to happen to my friend Mariano [Rajoy] but I know that those who have been in the front line of being the faithful allies of the politics of rigour without growth have lost their jobs

Mr Renzi believes he has more credibility to criticise Germany and the EU than some of his predecessors because his government has been more willing to respect EU rules and more active in pushing through reforms to modernise Italy’s economy and reduce political gridlock.

“People used to grimace when Italy spoke but that era is over,” Mr Renzi says. “There’s another Italy now which is in a position to say what it thinks of Europe.”

The Italian prime minister has certainly become more blunt, and does not hold back, in particular, when he criticises what he perceives as double standards against Italy, and often in favour of Germany.

The building of a second Nord Stream gas pipeline directly linking Russia to Germany is one of those issues, particularly because the EU was opposed to a separate pipeline deal from Russia — called South Stream — which would have benefited Italy more directly.

“So we say no to South Stream and then all of a sudden, quietly, we discover that there’s Nord Stream,” he says. “Who decided? Is that an EU energy policy choice? At the table, when I raised it, only Germany and Holland defended it. I understand this is important business, fine, I’m not scandalised — but I want to say either the rules apply to everyone, or no one,” he says.

Similarly, Italy was outraged this month when the EU opened an infraction proceeding against it for failing to fingerprint enough of the thousands of migrants it has been rescuing in the Mediterranean Sea. Mr Renzi says that may have been true in the past, but no longer.

People used to grimace when Italy spoke but that era is over

“Now we take fingerprints, we take pictures and check the irises. We can’t do more,” Mr Renzi says. “ Has [this letter] been sent to others? Between July and August Germany took in migrants and didn’t take fingerprints, because Merkel said, ‘first solidarity then bureaucracy’. What is valid for Italy has to be valid for Germany.”

In recent weeks, Mr Renzi’s government has been under heavy pressure because of the terms of a deal it arranged last month to rescue four small, suffering banks in central Italy. While the agreement — based on new EU rules against state aid — saved depositors and senior bondholders, thousands of junior debtholders and shareholders were wiped out, leading to a raft of vocal protests.

“The reality is there were EU rules and we had to respect them. We had a letter from [financial services commissioner Jonathan] Hill and [competition commissioner Margrethe] Vestager telling us what we could do and what we couldn’t do,” Mr Renzi said. In January, new EU rules will take effect that will also hit depositors in similar situations, and Mr Renzi said Europe needed to “reflect” on them. “My impression is they will have to run a few numbers in Brussels,” he said.

Otherwise, however, Mr Renzi defended the Italian banking system as “solid” and took another dig at Germany saying there was nothing to envy in their banks. “We have to sort out a few small situations but I would not trade the Italian banking system for the German one, with that system of Sparkassen,” he said. “ For God’s sake, I don’t want to have anything to do with [that] — I would copy other things from them,” he added.

I would not trade the Italian banking system for the German one, with that system of Sparkassen. For God’s sake, I don’t want to have anything to do with [that

Early next year, there could potentially be a new stand-off with Brussels over Italy’s budget, which was heavy on tax cuts and light on spending cuts, which is seen as problematic because of Italy’s high debt load. But Italy’s economy is recovering — posting output growth in 2015 for the first time after three years of recession — and Mr Renzi insists its public finances are improving.

“We didn’t ask for anything more [from Brussels] than what we could have asked for [under the new flexibility guidelines]. Actually we asked for a bit less,” Mr Renzi says. “Our debt will fall next year and our deficit is under 2.5 per cent,” he adds, before noting another perceived double standard. “Germany has a trade surplus of 8 per cent, and the rules say it should be 6 per cent at most,” he says.

Whether Mr Renzi’s calls for new EU economic policies — and an end to German hegemony — will be heeded, remains to be seen. But he thinks there is no choice. “We can defeat this demagogy, apathy and populism by betting on the growth and employment of a new social Europe, with more values, more culture, more ideals, more beauty,” he says. “We have to be careful with our finances, but it has to be less about commas and decimal points.”