Salvini ‘proud’ as UniCredit linked to Commerzbank bid
John Follain, Marco Bertacche and Dan Liefgreen ITALIAN Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini was cornered on UniCredit’s potential interest in Germany’s Commerzbank. On Friday, he made his first public comment on the possible cross-border merger when asked a question at the Foreign Press Association in his hometown Milan. But he limited himself to expressing patriotic pride at a prospect that has triggered unease within the populist government and his League party.
“As an Italian it would fill me with pride to see that UniCredit, like others such as Fincantieri, could compete at a continental level,” Salvini said. “In principle, I see nothing strange about this. Usually it’s the opposite, it’s foreign companies that come to Italy to do their shopping.”
Salvini, a champion of the Trumpian slogan “Italy First”, has repeatedly lashed out at the European Union and Germany ahead of the May 26 European Parliament vote. Yet Salvini was reluctant to be drawn further. “Don’t make me say something that’s going to get me in trouble, I already have enough legal troubles,” Salvini quipped.
Salvini’s public stand clashed with private comments by Italian officials who are bristling over German hostility toward the prospect of Commerzbank falling into Italian hands. Berlin has demanded that any acquirer moves its headquarters to Germany.
Salvini has turned the EU deficit and debt rules into a priority of his European campaign, unsettling financial markets and clashing with his populist ally-turned-rival in the Rome government. He has ramped up his attack on the EU, calling for an overhaul of the bloc’s banking rules. He denounced what he called “the rules that are strangling the European economy”.
Taking aim at rules limiting deficits and debt, Salvini said: “I’d go back to pre-Maastricht, with more normal economic and fiscal rules, when we talked about well-being and full employment. The directive on banks should be reviewed, because it puts the whole banking system at risk, the directive on services should be reviewed.”