Anti-migrant Euroskeptic League party leader Matteo Salvini said Thursday that Saturday's League-led anti-government rally was open to all including the neoFascist CasaPound group.
"We have opened the square to all Italians of good will," he said.
"Then, obviously, it's the League that organises it and who decides who speaks on the stage".
"This (accusation) of a Fascist rally makes everyone laugh and no one believes it any more".
Salvini said "at least 100,000 Italians" will attend the rally.
The main attendees and speakers will be form the League and its right-wing allies, ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party and the far-right Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
Salvini has appropriated Rome's traditional leftist stamping ground, Piazza San Giovanni, for the event.
The League leader called the rally after failing in his bid for a snap election after pulling the plug on his 14-month government with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S).
To his surprise and dismay, the M5S teamed up with its traditional enemies in the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) to form Premier Giuseppe Conte's second straight executive.
The M5S-PD government has run into early trouble over the 2020 budget but the measure is expected to be passed despite continued bickering.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
