'Not Salvini or death' says League head (3)

(ANSA) - Milan, March 26 - League leader Matteo Salvini said Monday on the prospect of his becoming a minister and not premier that he didn't want to lead the government at all costs, saying "it isn't Salvini or death".
    He stressed he would not put up vetoes on someone else being premier. "I'm interested in Italy changing," he told Telelombardia.
    "I'm ready to front up in the first person and work 24 hours a day. But since I want change, it isn't Salvini or death".
    "I'm ready, I think there is a team ready" to govern Italy," he said, dismissing ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's description of an alliance between Salvini and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio as an improbable mythological animal called "stag-goat".
    "Those who voted for us gave us trust to do things like abolishing the Fornero (pension) law and we'll see who agrees with us in parliament".
    Salvini said it would be an "honour" to be premier but he did not rule out other possibilities, and would not veto them if they proved to be right. "I'm not the problem in this country," he said. "I'm putting myself at the disposal (of the country)". He went on: "If I were to realise that to help my country there are other people who can give a hand, for God's sake, I'm not the one to say no". Salvini said Di Maio had shown he was "trustworthy" after a deal between the centre right and the M5S to share the parliamentary Speakers. "For now the Five Stars have shown they are trustworthy," Salvini said. "I judge people by their deeds, not words," he said.
    "I appreciate people who say something and then do it", he said, adding that "that goes for (Silvio) Berlusconi too: in the end we closed the deal with a compact centre right".
    In other remarks, the rightwing populist leader said after 14 EU expulsions of Russian diplomats including two from Italy in the UK ex-Russian spy poison affair Monday that "isolating and boycotting Russia, renewing economic sanctions and expelling its diplomats does not solve problems, on the contrary it worsens them". Salvini went on: "arresting the ex-president of Catalonia does not solve problems, on the contrary it worsens them. "Sanctions and handcuffs? I prefer dialogue. I want a government that works for a future of peace, growth and security, am I asking too much?" The League leader has frequently praised Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moscow has been blamed by the UK for the poisoning of ex-psy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.
    He has also voiced solidarity with Carles Puigdemont, arrested on a Spanish warrant in Germany Sunday, and Catalonia's independence bid.