Salvini tells Berlusconi to choose

(ANSA) - Rome, February 27 - 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.