| Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini shakes hands with Polish Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski during a joint news conference in Warsaw, Poland January 9, 2019 |
Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said on Wednesday he wants his country and Poland to join forces to reshape Europe in his quest for a eurosceptic alliance ahead of elections in May.
“Poland and Italy will be part of the new spring of Europe, the renaissance of European values,” he said at a press conference in Warsaw with Poland’s Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski.
The meeting was initiated by Brudzinski, who said the two discussed migration and EU border security.
Salvini added that they spoke about Poland and Italy’s cooperation on building a new continent.
“The Europe that will come to form in June (after May’s European Parliament elections) will lead us all rather than the one that exists today and is run by bureaucrats.”
Salvini will also meet with Poland’s ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski on Wednesday in Warsaw to discuss the new eurosceptic alliance.
Salvini, who heads Italy’s League Party, has repeatedly criticised the EU and says the May elections are vital for creating a “reformist” bloc that can overhaul Brussels institutions from within.
Poland’s government, run by the eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party, has also demanded the EU offer more sovereignty to member countries and meddle less in national affairs.