“The League will be the best surprise of these European elections. It will be difficult months and years for owls and jinxes”. Thus the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, from the stage set up in Piazza Duomo, in Milan, alongside General Roberto Vannacci, candidate with the Northern League in the next European elections.
Tension with the antagonists
Shortly before, in the square next to the Cathedral, there were moments of tension between some young antagonists and social centres, who approached shouting slogans against Salvini and attempted to tear down a poster of the League put up for the occasion and were blocked by the police.
Salvini’s intervention
Salvini begins his speech with a jab at the Democratic Party. “I would like to greet another Milanese square, currently gathered with fewer people than ours; it is that of Elly Schlein, who I hope will remain secretary of the Democratic Party for another 30 years. She’s a good person, she doesn’t think like me on various issues, but she’s the leader of the Democratic Party it is a guarantee that the League will be in government for 30 years”, he chanted.
And to support the thesis of the League’s success at the polls, he recalled that “yesterday in Catania there were 800 people, the day before yesterday 1500 in Messina and many told me that they hadn’t voted for the League because they didn’t like us; now many tell me, and for me it is a source of pride, on 9 June on Europe, on peace, on security, on housing, the League is the most coherent. And for this reason we will return to voting for the League,” he said. “And this – Salvini underlined – is why we have never changed our minds, we have never voted for Ursula von der Leyen and we will never vote for her. We want the centre-right united in the Municipalities, in the regions and also in the European Parliament; and if someone from the centre-right, out of spite, says no to the League and I prefer that warmonger Macron to Le Pen, he is not spiteful to the League, but he is harming Italy and the Italians”. Why “between Macron’s bombs and Marine Le Pen’s peace, we have the duty to choose Marine Le Pen without any doubt.”
Then the deputy prime minister announced that “in the next few days the League groups in the Chamber and Senate will propose documents to commit the entire Parliament to respect article 11 of the Constitution, ‘Italy repudiates the war’. “We – he adds – do not we can leave the Third World War and nuclear war on our children’s doorstep.”
As for tensions in the Middle East, “woe to those who think of erasing Israel from the pages of the world and of history”, he said. “The defense yes – he underlined – but let’s come to the table. It is fine to eradicate the Hamas terrorists, who are holding the children of Jerusalem and Gaza hostage, but we must stop the weapons on defenseless civilians who have nothing to do with the war. Let this damned war stop and peace break out again. The League will do everything to bring peace to Ukraine and the Middle East. But I wouldn’t want someone out of calculation to want bombs and missiles to solve the problems instead.”
Vannacci and the ‘tithe’
General Roberto Vannacci also intervenes from the League stage and, after the controversy over the video in which he invited people to put “a tithe” on the symbol of the League, evoking the Decima Mas, he returns to provoke. “There are so many reasons to change this Europe; I will only tell you about one, the tenth reason, who for me are my daughters”, said Vannacci, gathering applause and enthusiasm from those present and then talking about environmentalism, rights and freedom.
“A few hundred years ago – he said – someone called Galileo Galilei started from here criticizing what was considered common thought, risking being burned at the stake”.
“I want a Europe where the right to protest and demonstrate respects the rules of public order; The young protesters who spit on the policemen and kick them make me shudder.” Then she concluded by inviting the participants to vote: “At your signal – she said – we will unleash hell”.
