Fight Between Ruling Italian Populists Escalates Over Rail Link
- Salvini threatens to quit coalition if train project stopped
- Di Maio accuses fellow deputy premier of being ‘irresponsible’
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Italy’s populist coalition is often at odds but the dispute over a train link with France is really putting it to the test with Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini threatening to end the League’s alliance with Five Star if it keeps blocking the project.
Salvini, of the anti-immigration League, is a regular on Italian evening television and he intimated on Thursday that he could plug the plug “if there are too many ‘noes.’” A day later, he toned down the rhetoric by saying he was confident common sense would prevail over the contested Alpine tunnel.