‘We will not backtrack!’ Defiant Mateo Salvini lashes out at European Union chiefs
ITALY’S Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has branded top Brussels officials the “enemies of Europe” and accused financial speculators of banking on “the failure” of his country.
Mr Salvini, leader of the nationalist League party, attacked the European Commission and its senior figures and pledged to use next year’s European elections fight back with a populist “front of freedom”.
He said: “Those who want to speculate on the Italian economy should know that they are wasting time.
“We are against the enemies of Europe — Jean-Claude Juncker and Pierre Moscovici — shut away in the Brussels bunker.
“The politics of austerity of the last few years have increased Italian debt and impoverished Italy.
We will not backtrack, we will not backtrack
"If one had evil thoughts, he would think there are people betting on the spread because they don't want Italy to grow and create jobs.
"We will not backtrack, we will not backtrack.
“Speculators acting like George Soros are betting on Italy's collapse to buy at discount prices the healthy companies, and there are many of them, that have remained in this country."
“On behalf of the government, I say we are not going back .”
Earlier in the day, Mr Salvini reignited investor fears about his attitude towards Italy’s membership of the euro, tweeting: “Only death is irreversible. But at the moment there is no intention of touching the single currency.”
The commission has warned Italy’s government, made up of Mr Salvini’s League and the anti-establishment Five Star party,that its budget plans for next year will break eurozone spending rules, raising the prospect of a confrontation between Rome and Brussels later this month.
The budget plans, which must be submitted to Brussels to be vetted by the middle of this month, will see Italy’s budget deficit rise to 2.4 per cent of economic output.
The figure is within EU rules but is viewed by many as too high to allow the country to reduce its sizeable debts.
A letter, signed by European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and European Union Economic Affairs Commisioner Pierre Moscovici, said: “We call on the Italian authorities to ensure that the budget will be in compliance with the common fiscal rules and look forward to seeing the details of the measures."
Italian markets continued to feel the fallout of the government’s controversial deficit budget today as the FTSE MIB plummeted to its lowest level since April 2017.