Hundreds of voters flooded the social media pages of Italy’s fierce eurosceptic interior minister Matteo Salvini with disappointed comments after the government announced a cut in its draft budget to “avoid problems with Europe”. Hours after the country’s prime minister Giuseppe Conte admitted Rome bowed down to Brussels’ pressures, Mr Salvini wrote on Facebook: “Still working for the Italians, to keep the promises made on jobs, pensions, health and safety, trying to avoid problems with Europe and the markers. I don’t give up!” The message was received with anger by the otherwise faithful followers of Mr Salvini’s page.
Many said to be disappointed in the Lega leader, who during the electoral campaign and his first months as minister waged a war against Brussels’ overpowering control on Italian finances.
One social media user unleashed his rage in a comment to Mr Salvini’s post, saying: “The draft budget was already awful when set at 2.4 percent, as it was basically just a welfare manoeuvre without any investments planned, let alone now that you have to cut to 2 percent!
“France is doing what it wants, you spent months speaking against Europe, saying you would not backtrack by a millimetre and now we are just bending over.
READ MORE: Italy CAVES in: Rome AGREES to EU demands as it confirms it WILL slash deficit target
“You are a bluff! And I am speaking as a voter who feels let down.
“Next round of election you can dream of my ballot!”
Another one wrote: “My God, if we have to ‘avoid problems with Europe’ then why are you even there?
“What did you promise during the electoral campaign?”
After months of rancorous meetings between Rome and Brussels Mr Conte yesterday confirmed the government will slash its 2019 budget from 2.4 percent of the country’s GDP to 2.04 percent.
This comes after the European Union threatened Italy with disciplinary proceedings after several warnings the draft budget was in breach of previous spending commitments.
Following the meeting in Brussels, Mr Conte said: “In its first evaluation, the Commission judged the proposal as significant.
He later added the government was “not at all betraying the trust of Italians” as he declared: “We made a serious and reasonable offer.
“We are a government which respects commitments but we are also reasonable.
“And we have put forward a proposal.”
A spokeswoman for the European Commission (EC) said after the meeting: “Good progress has been made.
“The European Commission will now assess the proposals received this afternoon, work will continue in the coming days.”
However, the government is facing unprecedented levels of disapproval, as shown by two surveys carried out by pollster SWG.
One, which analysed the opinions on the budget of 1,500 voters, showed that between December 5 and 10 more than 50 percent contested the content of the budget, while 47 percent did.
This is the first time Italian expressed a negative opinion on the government’s budget.
On October 23, 54 percent of the surveyed said they were satisfied with it.
And the government alliance is also losing consensus, with the Five Star losing 1,1 percent of the approval between December 3 to December 11 in a poll analysing the ratings of the main Italian parties.
Lega, on the other hand, remained stable at 32 percent.