League rallies at Pontida, Vannacci, Orban star

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 6 - The rightwing League party held its annual rally at its spiritual home of Pontida in northern Italy Sunday with MEP and suspended army general Roberto Vannacci and Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban among the stars.
    Vannacci, a former paratrooper who became a bestselling writer with his controversial book The World Upside Down, said 'I didn't expect so much affection. " Activists shouted slogans for the League's pet policy of 'differentiated autonomy', which has been accused of worsening the north-south gap in Italy, and chants in defense of leader Matteo Salvini, the deputy premier and transport minister, who risks six years in prison on charges of kidnapping migrants at Lampedusa as part of his controversial closed ports policy while interior minister in 2018-19.
    "Italy is not one only" and "hands off Salvini, defdning national borders is not a crime," were some of the slogans displayed on banners and chanted by Leaguers.
    There was a palpable sense of anticipation for Orban, while Marine Le Pen, last year's star. will send a video message.
    Also featuring on stage will be the other parties that, led by Orban, have merged into the Patriots for Europe caucus, distancing themselves not only from the centre-right European People's Party, but above all from the Conservatives of Giorgia Meloni: from the spokesperson of Vox, Jose Antonio Fuster, to the ruling Dutch Geert Widers, from the Portuguese Andrè Ventura of Chega to the Austrian Marlene Svazek of FPO, which just won the elections in Vienna. (ANSA).