League leader says Italy government to focus on its priorities after EU vote: paper

Reuters
FILE PHOTO: Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini addresses a major rally of European nationalist and far-right parties ahead of EU parliamentary elections in Milan, Italy May 18, 2019. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's coalition government won't fall after this week's vote for the European parliament but will have "to do a number of things" which are priorities for the right-wing League party, its leader, Matteo Salvini, was quoted as saying. Asked if the League could topple the government if it got more than 30 percent of votes, Salvini said in an interview with Friday's La Stampa daily that he wanted "to change the European Union's agricultural policy not the government". "For sure though we'll have to start doing things," he said, listing as priorities a highly controversial high-speed rail link between Turin and Lyon, the introduction of a flat tax rate and greater devolution of powers to local governments. (Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Robert Birsel)