In Italy, Matteo Renzi Aims to Upend the Old World Order.

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ROME — In a tailored black suit, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi stood before the Italian Senate recently and applauded lawmakers for taking some tough votes on reforms he boasted would jump-start the country after the longest slump in its modern history.

But what he did not bring up is that he is asking them to take an even tougher vote, to essentially abolish the Senate itself, which Mr. Renzi and many others regard as emblematic of a broken political system that often seems designed not to get things done.

The speech was vintage Renzi: brash and boastful, framed in a better-days-ahead optimism, even as senators already understood the knife-in-the-ribs reality of the reform program. At 40, Mr. Renzi is the youngest prime minister in Italy’s history, having assumed office on promises to tear down the country’s ossified political structure and rebuild the country for a younger generation.

With left-wing and right-wing populist movements seeking to topple the political establishments from London to Madrid to Paris, Mr. Renzi has positioned himself as Europe’s insurgent insider. He has tried to tap into the public anger by arguing that the system should be changed from within and offering himself — as Tony Blair and Bill Clinton did in an earlier era — as a way forward for traditional, center-left parties struggling to stay relevant.

In Europe, Mr. Renzi has frequently challenged fiscal austerity, warning of dire problems if leaders fail to shift to policies to bolster economic growth, a topic certain to be discussed when he meets with President Obama in April at the White House. He has cultivated a relationship with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany — hosting her in Florence for an art-filled visit — and now argues that Europe’s embrace of quantitative easing and infrastructure spending proves that a meaningful policy shift is underway.

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