PONTIDA: Italy’s far-right League launched its annual gathering on Sunday with party head and hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini in triumphant mood after declaring the country’s ports closed to NGO migrant ships.
Salvini, attending his fifth party conference in the northern port of Pontida, said the League had cemented its place as the “most populist party” in Europe.
“The term is a compliment to me,” the 45-year-old, clad in a blue T-shirt bearing his own portrait, told journalists in Pontida.
“I will tour capital cities, and not just European ones, to create an alternative to this Europe founded on exploitation… (and) mass immigration.”
Around 50,000 people from around Italy were expected to attend the event, drawn by Salvini’s “Italians first” rallying cry.
Salvini, who is co-deputy prime minister as well as interior minister, has thrived with his hardline stance as the migrant issue has become central to the European agenda.
He announced Friday that Italian ports would be closed “all summer” to charity ships which rescue migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe.
“The NGOs will only see Italy on a postcard,” Salvini quipped.
Anti-immigration hardliners accuse the rescuers of exacerbating the situation in the Mediterranean, where migrants try to cross the sea on rickety boats from North Africa.
The issue has once again exposed the rifts plaguing the European Union, as member states fight over how to handle the influx of people fleeing war, poverty and persecution trying to reach the continent.
On Friday, the bloc’s 28 leaders hammered out a hard-fought agreement aimed at clamping down on immigration. But key divisions remain regarding its implementation.
Salvini — who has forged alliances with other far-right Europeans including France’s National Rally — said on Sunday that the 2019 European Parliament elections will be a referendum on “a Europe without borders… and a Europe that protects its citizens”.
Italy’s new anti-establishment government took power on June 1, ending months of deadlock that saw the eurozone’s third largest economy narrowly avoid snap elections after a last-gasp coalition deal.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was sworn in at the head of the first far-right, populist government in an EU founding member, forged by the League and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S).
