Berlusconi meets Salvini in Milan

(ANSA) - Rome, September 13 - Centre-right Forza Italia (FI) leader and three-time ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi on Friday met anti-migrant Euroskeptic League party leader and former interior minister Matteo Salvini in the media magnate's Milan house.
    Salvini had announced the meeting during a protest against the new 5-Star-Democratic Party (M5S-PD) government outside the House on Monday.
    The government was formed after Salvini pulled the plug on a 14-month M5S-League government to try to take advantage of high poll numbers in a snap election, never thinking the M5S and the PD would get together.
    Among the points on Salvini and Berluscon's agenda was "the coordination talks for the oppositions", sources said.
    Also to be discussed are regional elections in Umbria next month where the centre right including FI and the League will run together in support of the League mayor of Montefalco, Donatella Tesei.
    Berlusconi will campaign in Umbria as well as Salvini.
    The League leader has said he will return to the central Italian region next week.
    FI and the League, formerly the Northern League, are allies in ruling most of Italy's regions.
    They were also allies in parliament until the League got Berlusconi's permission to join the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) for the government that ended when Salvini brought it down asking for "full powers" from the Italian people on August 8.
    Also running for the centre right is the far-right Brothers of Italy (FdI) party of Giorgia Meloni.
    FI said after Friday's meeting that Berlusconi and Salvini had a "cordial meeting" and agreed to "form a common front for an effective opposition to the new government".
    Berlusconi said "everything Ok. It went well, we are in full harmony.
    "We talked a little bit about everything, about the opposition, it all went well".
    The League has surged past FI as top dog on the right as Salvini turned it into a nationwide force and adopted tough and popular anti-migrant, anti-Roma, anti-EU and law and order stances over the last few years.
    When Salvini brought down the government the League was polling at around 38%. That has since dropped to 33% after his move backfired.
    FI was polling at around 20% as recently as two years ago.
    IT is now down to 5-6% and has been overtaken by FdI. photo: Berlusconi and Salvini in 2015