Salvini says populists could spark 'European Spring' as he meets Polish ruling party leader

Italy’s pugnacious deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, called for an alliance with populists in Poland and elsewhere during a visit to Warsaw, setting the stage for a showdown with the EU establishment at European Parliament elections in May. Mr Salvini, who leads the nationalist, anti-immigrant League party, pledged to create a “new European spring” and to work with Poland’s ruling populists.

It was his latest attempt to recruit Eurosceptic allies in a growing confrontation with the likes of Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

He vowed to forge a “new equilibrium” that would challenge the traditional pro-EU axis between Paris and Berlin.

"The Europe that will be born in June will have a different pace compared to the one of today, which is guided by bureaucrats," said Mr Salvini, who is also Italy’s interior minister, speaking alongside his Polish counterpart, Joachim Brudzinski.

"In Europe, one has always spoken about a French-German axis. We are preparing for a new equilibrium and a new energy in Europe. And Poland and Italy will be the protagonists of this new European spring, of this rebirth of true European values."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/09/italys-matteo-salvini-seeks-build-new-populist-european-order/