POLICORO (Italy): Italy’s hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini embarked on a southern tour to rally support on Saturday, demanding an election date be set after he pulled out of the coalition government, plunging the country into a political crisis.
“The only thing I am interested in is that we fix a date for the election. Italians need to know when they can vote for a new government,” Salvini said, taking selfies of himself among a crowd in the southern town of Policoro.
He urged lawmakers to decide quickly, saying he was ready and willing “to give Italy a courageous, stable government which will last 10 years”. Salvini told Rai Uno television on Friday that he had had enough of working with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) led by Luigi di Maio and what he said was its refusal to work together on key issues during their 14-month alliance.
“I am in Puglia, I am meeting workers, farmers, they want a government which ensures certainty for investors,” he said.
Taking his message to the beaches at the height of the summer holiday season, Salvini is seeking to build on the League’s strong showing in May’s European Parliament elections when it won 34 percent of the vote, twice that of the M5S. The message appears to be getting across to some. Niccola D’Ecclesis, holidaying in Puglia, said he voted for M5S “in protest”, but was now a fervent Salvini fan. “Salvini is in action, he is not afraid,” he said.
However, it was not all sunshine for Salvini in Policoro, one of the southern areas where M5S did well in last year’s general election. Some young people greeted Salvini with cries of “fascist” and “racist”, as well as singing “Bella Ciao”, an anthem of the Italian resistance during World War II.
One person even tried to throw a glass of water in his face, but Salvini was unperturbed by the incident. His “beach tour” ended yesterday in Sicily. For his part, Di Maio attacked his erstwhile colleague for wanting to ditch a government which over the past year “has resisted the lobbying of the powerful, adopted the toughest anti-corruption legislation in Europe and helped pensioners, the poor and the needy”.
He also called for an urgent vote on reducing the number of lawmakers in parliament before going into an election. “Let’s get rid of 345 of the seats in parliament (out of 950) and their salaries,” he said on Facebook, adding that the money saved could be better spent. – AFP
