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Milan, Italy (CNN)Italy'southward Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, has launched what amounts to a "Make Europe Peachy Again" campaign, in an attempt to unite far-right political parties across the continent alee of parliamentary elections next month.

"For many Europeans, the Eu (European union) is a nightmare," he told reporters later the leaders of some of Europe's far-correct parties met in Milan on Monday to form an alliance called "Towards a Europe of Common Sense."

The group hopes to form a bulk bloc in the European Parliament, following elections from May 23 to 26.

"We are gear up to have on Europe," Salvini told reporters and supporters in Milan, the metropolis where his party was, until recently, based.

Notably missing from the meeting were France's National Front end political party leader Marine Le Pen, whom Salvini met in Paris on Thursday, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Le Pen's spokesman, Alain Vizier, said in a statement that she was "busy with her election campaign."

When asked why Le Pen did not attend the conference, Salvini said: "I represent the whole (Europe of Nations and Freedom) ENF group," he said. "I speak for the French, the Austrians, the Dutch members."

Jörg Meuthen, co-president of Federal republic of germany'southward far-right Culling for Germany (AfD) party, was at the meeting, along with Olli Kotro, head of the Finns Political party (ECR), and Anders Vistisen from the Danish People's Party.

'Natural allies'

Ahead of the conference, Salvini told Italian paper La Stampa, "We share the same objectives, the same ethics and values. We are natural allies."

Those objectives center on Salvini's hardline approach to migration from North Africa. In June 2018, Salvini made skilful on a campaign promise to close Italy's ports -- which had seen more than 600,000 migrants and refugees enter the country since 2012 -- to rescue boats.

"The goal is not to redistribute those who enter Europe clandestinely," Salvini said. "We take a platform to protect our borders and national identities."

Amid the brotherhood'southward aims is a plan to bolster the European Marriage'south border protection bureau, Frontex, by equally many as ten,000 people.

"Europe is lacking behind on both national security and immigration. European Union security must take a higher priority than in the past," Vistisen from the Danish People's Party said during the meeting.

Steve Bannon, U.S. President Donald Trump'southward former White Business firm chief strategist, has been vocal in his back up for Salvini, meeting him in Italian republic last September.

On a contempo trip to Rome, Bannon said Italy was especially important in the global ability struggle.

"It's the center of the universe because of, really, the rise of Salvini and what Salvini means for Europe and what he means as a political figure for the world," Bannon told journalists at a press briefing in Rome final calendar month.

Bannon is i of the founders of a group he calls The Motion, a far-correct organization based in Brussels that provides support to European right-wing nationalist parties, including Salvini'southward party.

Salvini has kept his distance -- at to the lowest degree in public -- only frequently uses the same rhetoric as Bannon against globalists, Brussels and the "elite."

Bannon said all eyes were on the European elections, and on Salvini and other European nationalist parties' possible victory. "I just recollect there is real momentum," he told CNN, post-obit stiff performances by right-fly parties in southern Italy and the Netherlands.

Populist momentum

There is "real momentum on the populist nationalist side, a sovereignty motion," Bannon said. "I think people are coming to this crusade and I retrieve information technology is going to have tremendous support."

Salvini's party, the League (formerly known every bit the Northern League), is already part of the ENF coalition in the European Parliament. Merely Salvini and other members are hoping to increase their number of seats to give them a greater voice in European affairs.

The League has enjoyed considerable success in recent regional elections in Italian republic; opinion polls suggest it has a lead over its coalition partner, the V Star Motility (M5S).

In recent polls, Salvini's party has not run with the V Star Motion, headed by the party's charismatic 32-twelvemonth-old leader, Luigi Di Maio, who shares the championship of Deputy Prime Government minister and is also Italy's Economic Evolution and Labor Minister.

Nadia Urbinati, a political scientific discipline professor at Columbia University, says part of Salvini's success has been his visible role as Italy's Interior Minister, which allows him to entrada while on the job -- particularly on the bug of migration and national security.

"He can strengthen his popularity on immigrants and by using arguments of security in order to appear he is acting in favor of the Italian public," Urbinati says. "So, showing himself that he is doing his politics is quick, like shooting fish in a barrel and costless."

The League'south regional election campaign focused on nationalist, populist and anti-migrant rhetoric. Salvini has spearheaded a serial of anti-immigrant policies and has implemented law and society measures reminiscent of Italy's fascist by, such every bit dismantling migrant and Roma camps.

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Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/08/europe/matteo-salvini-far-right-european-elections/index.html

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