Quotes from Matteo Salvini

Renzi is a pawn. Renzi is a dumb slave at the disposal of nameless people who want to control all of our lives from Brussels.

Everyone who votes for us will know that a Northern League government would get rid of the euro and move back to a national currency.

On principle, I always support the opinion of a population who express themselves through a referendum.

There's water on Mars, and there's life beyond Brussels.

We need a mass cleansing, street by street, piazza by piazza, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.

'Populism' is a compliment to me. We envision a different Europe where every E.U. country should have the freedom to decide its own economic policies.

I don't do my job as minister based on polls.

My pope is Benedict.

Long live sausage! Long live salami! Long live pork, coppa, and pancetta!

Italian ports are no longer at the disposal of traffickers.

On immigration, the League and Five Star's positions start from notable distances.

No one will ever manage to convince me that the Fornero law is right and should not be changed.

We need to adopt a new currency. It doesn't matter what or how we call it - lira, sterling, Roman sesterce.

History goes in cycles.

Macron talks about values, but he doesn't recognize the values itself, and therefore, they have no lessons to give to Italy.

If Macron thinks there is no immigration crisis in Italy, he should open his doors to the 9,000 migrants France agreed to welcome from Italy in accordance with signed European agreements.

The catechism says rich nations should welcome strangers within the limits of the possible. In Italy, we have reached the limits of the possible.

We need deportation centres.

A country which does not create children is destined to die.

An Italy that collects lower taxes, that has well-defined times for the court proceedings, and that has less bureaucracy is good news that reassures the markets.

With Islam, there's the Sharia. There's the Islamic law which prevails, and as long as it doesn't distinguish between God and the state, it's a problem.

The final objective is not to distribute the migrants among various European countries but to prevent them from entering Europe and from departing from Africa. We need to intervene in Africa. We need to have a Marshall Plan for Africa to improve living conditions in the countries of origin.

The national interest is the priority. If not, what's the point in continuing to give money to the E.U.?

Exporting this Western model of democracy in countries that don't want it or are not ready creates disasters.