Italy put forward plans to run a 2.4 percent of GDP deficit as part of the country’s 2019 budget, triggering an immediate crackdown from the European Union.
Matteo Salvini and top Eurocrats have exchanged insults since the proposal was made public, with Mr Salvini warning the bloc the Italian Government will retaliate to their threats.
Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis told Bloomberg Mr Salvni’s insistence to support the policy could edge the bloc closer to disintegration.
Mr Varoufakis said: “Mr Salvini, who is effectively the strong man behind the Government, his great wish is to disintegrate the European Union and for Italy to get out of the euro.
“The establishment’s insistence on policies that don’t work in Italy is bringing the European Union closer and closer to disintegration.”
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Despite threats to send the draft budget proposals back to Rome, Mr Salvini announced he would remain hard-nosed and refuse to come up with an alternative plan.
Mr Varoufakis, however, insisted the eurosceptic Italian Government should stop pursuing “spoiled brat’s” policies and adopt a hard stance focused on changing the rules of the bloc.
He continued: “Stop adopting the previous Government’s strategy which I referred to, rather harshly, as the ‘spoiled brat’s syndrome’.
“If you want to be a serious Italian Prime Minister you want to be true to your own people and true to Europe.
“You should use your position as Prime Minister of Italy – the third largest eurozone’s economy – in order to demand the European Union Council meets to discuss the rules and to discuss the reappraisal of these silly rules.”
Latest SWG polls of 1,500 Italians revealed support for Mr Salvini’s Lega has nearly doubled, hitting 30.7 percent on October 8 in an apparent sign his demands for more support from the European Union have been met with the approval of Italian voters.
Responding to the results of the latest polls on Wednesday, Mr Salvini said: “I am proud of our government. Italians understand we are doing our best. We will make mistakes but we will do so with our own heads not because of someone else’s orders.”
And with the European Elections scheduled for 2019, this week Mr Salvini reminded the Commission of the risks of threatening a core member state like Italy: “The Europe of bankers, founded on mass immigration and economic insecurity, keeps on threatening and insulting Italians and their Government?
“Relax, in six months 500 million voters will fire them. We keep going.”