Salvini calls for hard-right street protests in Rome
MATTEO SALVINI has called on his supporters to protest against the coalition being formed between his former allies and Italy’s centre-left.
The leader of the hard-right League told Italians that they had not seen the last of him, despite his botched attempt to force an election which he hoped would make him prime minister.
He called for demonstrations over the next two months in Pontida, which is in the League’s northern heartlands, and in Rome. As negotiations continued to form a new government consisting of Five Star and its former foe, the Democratic Party, Mr Salvini gave a farewell address to colleagues.
The outgoing interior minister, who was also deputy prime minister, said that “sooner or later” the new government would collapse. When he ended his coalition with Five Star on Aug 8, he calculated that Italy would go to new elections. He did not count on a coalition pact being made.
Mr Salvini also said the likely new government was “born in Brussels in order to get rid of that pain in the neck, Salvini”. But they would not be able to get rid of him and the “ballbreakers” of the League so easily, he added.