Will NOT be dictated to by the French! Salvini’s scathing ATTACK on EU meddling

The Italian Deputy Prime Minister claimed he was not bothered by claims the will reject ‘s new deficit budget plan.

Mr Salvini appeared to take a dig at eurozone finance ministers who warned Italy should respect the bloc’s spending rules demanding more detail from Rome on the budget plans.

The Italian eurosceptic said: “Some French minister don’t like me, who cares?

“I’ll live with it. I prefer Prosecco and Franciacorta to Champagne.

“And I hope I’m able to say it without being stopped by anyone.

“Not only that but Italian cheese is better than French cheese!”

On Monday, French economy minister Bruno Le Maire said the economic fate of all 19 eurozone members was linked and said the budget rulebook was meant to protect countries from higher borrowing costs.

Mr Le Maire said plans agreed on last week in Rome would need to be studied in detail by the European Commission, whose assessment would then be passed onto national capitals.

He said: “I just want to make very clear that there are rules, and rules are the same for every state.

“Because our futures are linked, the future of Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, all the members of the eurozone are linked”.

But Matteo Salvini said the government would not back down and shrugged off concerns the EU will reject the budget.

He added next year’s deficit spending was needed to create jobs and spark growth.

Mr Salvini said: “This is a budget that looks to the future, and we will absolutely not go backwards.”

After a selloff hit Italian bonds on Tuesday, the government made up of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the right-wing League late on Wednesday watered down its original plan to keep its deficit steady at 2.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020-21.

But Italy stuck to its 2.4 percent target for next year, and on Thursday morning government officials said they had no plans to make further revisions to that goal, which is three times more than one set out by the previous government.

Speaking about the multi-year budget targets that must be reviewed by Brussels by mid-month, Deputy Economy Minister Massimo Garavaglia said on Thursday: “Either it passes or it doesn’t, but this isn’t the problem.

“We’re more focused on what is happening in the markets.”