Di Maio, Salvini 'out of govt if needed' (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, May 16 - 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio said Wednesday that he and League chief Matteo Salvini were willing to be outside the government team if this were necessary to make a M5S-League executive possible.
    "I hope that I can be involved in the government to put myself personally to the test, but if necessary, I and Salvini are ready to be outside," Di Maio told reporters. Salvini said on Facebook on Wednesday that "we have made big steps forward" in the talks. He said the two parties "will move on to the names" for government positions if they manage to finalise an agreement on the programme by the end of the day. "I'm happy, we are not reasoning on the names (for positions) but only on the future of Italy and we are reasoning with the M5S in a correct, constructive and positive way," Salvini said in a live Facebook broadcast. Salvini also hit back at the Financial Times for comparing the prospect of a League-M5S government to the return of the barbarians to Rome. "The FT says we are barbarians. I say that is is better to be barbarians than slaves," Salvini said on Facebook. "They are using the usual tricks, the spread. But we are going forward. I wasn't born just to make do".
    Di Maio said that an eventual M5S-League government would be open to dialogue with the European Union, while stressing that it would not take orders from it. "I can understand that the agreement (for an M5S-League govt) may scare a part of the European establishment," Di Maio said.
    "There will be utmost dialogue with Europe but we will not be subordinate to Eurocrats.
    "We have put together (with the League) new procedures for dialogue with the EU".