Northern League leader Matteo
Salvini said Friday that he had not "divorced" ex-premier Silvio
Berlusconi and his centre-right political parties, even if he
had left that impression previously.
"It's not true that I divorced Berlusconi," Salvini said in
an interview on morning TV show Mattino Cinque, broadcast on
Berlusconi-founded network Mediaset.
There, he tried to clarify his previously-stated views
about his party's tenuous alliance with Berlusconi and his
now-defunct People of Freedom (PdL) party.
Berlusconi replaced the PdL with Forza Italia (FI).
Salvini said he told Berlusconi to choose whether to align
his party with the New Centre Right (NCD) party of Interior
Minister Angelo Alfano, or move further right towards Salvini.
"I just calmly and serenely told Berlusconi to choose
whether the future he sees for the centre-right in Italy is that
of Alfano and illegal immigration or if it's that of the League,
which on certain battles has clear ideas," said Salvini.
"Either me or Alfano," he said.
On Thursday, Salvini who leads the regionalist,
anti-immigrant and anti-euro Northern League had ruled out an
electoral accord with the former premier, citing differences on
such policies as staying in the eurozone and European allies.
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