Govt will go distance despite differences on EU- Salvini (3)

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 13 - Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini has said that the differences between the parties of Premier Giorgia Meloni's ruling coalition at the EU level will not cause the government to cave in before the end of the parliamentary term.
    Salvini's League has joined the new Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament founded by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
    The new group also includes Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) and it has lured Spanish ultraconservative party Vox and Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPO) away from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) caucus that Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party belongs to.
    The other main party in the ruling alliance, Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani's Forza Italia, is in European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's centre-right European People's Party (EPP).
    "This is the government that the Italians chose and it will last for all five years (of the parliamentary term)," Salvini told 'ItaliaReportUsa' when asked whether differences within the coalition over Europe could have repercussions for the government's stability.
    "We already had different positions in Europe before and we continue to have them now.
    "There is a part of the government that supports von der Leyen's encore (second term).
    "But the damage the outgoing Commission did is serious and we cannot support it.
    "As far as the government is concerned, 'Hic manebimus optime' (I am very happy here), and we will continue to govern for five years." (ANSA).