Anti-migrant Euroskeptic League
party leader Matteo Salvini said Thursday that Saturday's
League-led anti-government rally was open to all including the
neoFascist CasaPound group.
"We have opened the square to all Italians of good will," he
said.
"Then, obviously, it's the League that organises it and who
decides who speaks on the stage".
"This (accusation) of a Fascist rally makes everyone laugh
and no one believes it any more".
Salvini said "at least 100,000 Italians" will attend the
rally.
The main attendees and speakers will be form the League and
its right-wing allies, ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's
centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party and the far-right Brothers
of Italy (FdI) party.
Salvini has appropriated Rome's traditional leftist stamping
ground, Piazza San Giovanni, for the event.
The League leader called the rally after failing in his bid
for a snap election after pulling the plug on his 14-month
government with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S).
To his surprise and dismay, the M5S teamed up with its
traditional enemies in the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) to
form Premier Giuseppe Conte's second straight executive.
The M5S-PD government has run into early trouble over the
2020 budget but the measure is expected to be passed despite
continued bickering.
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