DEPUTY PM SLAMS EU AFTER DRAFT BUDGET REJECTED

Matteo Salvini, pictured, Italy’s far-right deputy prime minister said Tuesday his country would stick to a controversial spending plan, after the European Commission demanded it be resubmitted over a failure to lower soaring public debt.

“This doesn’t change anything, let the speculators be reassured, we’re not going back,” said Salvini. “These are things that will anger Italians even more and then people complain that the popularity of the European Union is at its lowest.”

The commission formally rejected Italy’s draft budget and asked Rome to resubmit a new one within three weeks, an unprecedented step certain to kick off months of confrontations between Rome and Brussels.

The EU’s executive arm had already stressed that Italy’s budget was in serious breach of EU rules and had asked Rome’s populist government to amend it.