FILE PHOTO: Italian Deputy Prime Minister and right-wing League party leader Matteo Salvini attends a news conference at the Foreign Press Club in Rome, Italy December 10, 2018. REUTERS/Tony Gentile/File Photo
December 31, 2018
MILAN (Reuters) – Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said on Monday he did not see any danger to the government in the coming months as it turns its efforts to new reforms after closing the budget for next year.
The Italian parliament passed the government’s 2019 budget on Saturday, just ahead of a year-end deadline, following a deal with the European Commission which calmed financial markets and averted a risk of fines against Rome.
“I hope this will be the last budget being approved after long and complicated negotiations with Brussels,” Salvini said in an interview with daily newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, adding that he hoped that European Union veto power on state finances would be overcome.
Salvini, who is also the leader of the League, one of the two ruling parties in Italy, said the first measure on the table for the new year will be aimed at strengthening legitimate defense rights for ordinary people.
(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Jan Harvey)
