Italy Ready for EU Showdown in Budget Clash ‘Italians Come First’

• Italy Ready for EU Showdown in Budget Clash ‘Italians Come First’
  by GERRARD KAONGA, https://www.express.co.uk/
  ITALIAN deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini has vowed he will not change Rome’s proposed 2019 budget in defiance of the European Commission’s three week deadline for a new plan as tensions soar.
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  During a radio interview Mr Salvini insisted the budget, which raises the deficit next year to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product was the only way to lower the public debt. Italy’s public debt stood at 131.2 per cent of GDP at the end of last year, the highest ratio in the Eurozone after Greece’s.
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  The deputy prime minister said to boost the economy and lower the debt as a proportion of GDP, Italy had to “do the opposite” of previous governments whose plans were more satisfying to Brussels. He said: “They’re not attacking a government but a people. These are things that will anger Italians even more and then people complain that the popularity of the European Union is at its lowest.
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