(ANSA) Rome, March 2 - Leaders of the rightwing populist
Northern League party met Monday to hammer out strategy for
upcoming regional elections as Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia
urged them to forge a new right-wing alliance.
League leader Matteo Salvini was presiding over the meeting
of the Federal Council of the anti-euro, anti-immigrant party
also attended by his rival Flavio Tosi, mayor of Verona, who has
accused Salvini of trying to kill off the precious autonomy of
the Veneto branch of the movement, the Liga Veneta, and
threatened to run himself in the regional polls against an
official candidate proposed by the party's Milan headquarters.
Also on the agenda was analysis of a demonstration Salvini
lef in Rome on Saturday against the government of Premier Matteo
Renzi, widely seen as a flop by commentators due to a modest
turnout.
Meanwhile Giovanni Toti, a Forza Italia political
counsellor, urged the League to join forces with the
conservative grouping again.
"I hope that despite the remarks by Salvini at the rally,
which I understand, there will be the need to sit together
around a table and take decions," said Toti.
"We must as FI and as the centre-right roll up our sleeves
to build a recipe for government. It would be crazy not to grasp
this chance to return to govern together in the regions where we
do already and to build a real government alternative".
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