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In a radio interview with RTL 102.5, Salvini insisted the
expansionary budget, which raises the deficit next year to 2.4
percent of gross domestic product from a targeted 1.8 percent
this year, was the only way to lower the public debt.
"Italians come first ... Italy no longer wants to be a servant
to silly rules," said Salvini, who leads the right-wing League
party that governs with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.
The Commission called on Rome to present a new draft budget that
cuts the structural deficit, which excludes one-offs and
business cycle swings, by 0.6 percent of GDP, rather than
increase it by 0.8 points as in the current plan.
The EU executive was exerting for the first time a power
obtained in 2013 after a sovereign debt crisis, to send back a
budget of a euro zone country it says violates the rulebook.
Salvini said in order to boost the economy and lower the debt as
a proportion of GDP Italy had to "do the opposite" of previous
governments whose fiscal plans had been more acceptable to
Brussels.
Italy's public debt stood at 131.2 percent of GDP at the end of
last year, the highest ratio in the eurozone after Greece's.
Despite his defiant tone on the budget, Salvini said Italy's
membership of the single currency was not in question.
"I don't want to leave euro or leave the European Union," he
said.
In a wide-ranging interview, Salvini also said he had evidence
that France was taking immigrants across the border and
depositing them in Italy, and that this could be part of an
attempt to destabilize the Italian government.
(Reporting by Gavin Jones)
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