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Italy and right-wing French leaders on Monday launched their election campaign in the European Parliament by attacking the "Brussels Bunker" that they hope to en masse after the May vote.
"The month of May will mark the end of the trip, a revolution of common sense", said in Rome alongside Marine Le Pen, Matteo Salvini, president of the anti-immigration party of the Italian League and Deputy Prime Minister.
Mr Salvini, also Minister of the Interior, has taken a fierce anti-immigrant stance since taking office in June and has recently turned to social issues, notably the low birth rate in Italy.
His party won 17% of the vote in March and opinion polls now predict that his party will get 30%.
"The real challenge is the fight against precarious employment, unemployment … empty beds," Salvini said, again attacking European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU commissioner charge of the economy, Pierre Moscovici, who criticized the Italian budget for increasing spending and deficit.
"The enemies of Europe are those who are cut in the Brussels Bunker," said Salvini. "The Junckers, the Moscovicis, brought insecurity and fear to Europe and refused to leave their seats.
"I am attentive to evaluations of stock markets, markets, analysts, but if a budget proposal like ours puts forward the right to work, to health, to life, to retirement, go before other reasons" said Salvini.
Marine Le Pen, head of the National Rally of France (formerly the National Front), supported Salvini.
"The EU has been built on a lot of promises … but very few are realized or give results … absolutely pathetic," she said.
"We are not fighting against Europe but against the European Union, which has become a totalitarian system," she said.
"Today is a historic moment, and history with a capital" H "will be written in May, which will be the emergence of a Europe of nations," she said.
The Pen, Salvini and other anti-immigrant far-right parties hope to upset the equilibrium in the European Parliament after the May vote.
© 2018 AFP
