Right-wing 'Patriots for Europe' group rallies around Italian politician Matteo Salvini
Representatives from the EU Parliament’s third-largest political group attended the League party’s annual gathering where migration and border protection topped the agenda.
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00:00It was both a show of strength and support for Matteo Salvini.
00:05On Sunday, leaders of political forces within the far-right nationalist Patriots for Europe
00:09group came to the League Party's annual gathering in Pantida to defend the Italian leader who
00:14faces a potential jail sentence in a migration trial.
00:18The stood united on stage under the slogan, defending borders is not a crime.
00:23They cannot stop the holy alliance of the European peoples that today is born in Pantida.
00:31I love you and I give you my word of honour that I will not give up and I will never give up.
00:37From the President of Portugal's O'Sheaga Party to Austria's Freedom Party and Hungary's
00:42Prime Minister Viktor Orban, migration topped the agenda, along with the call for Europe
00:47to change its course.
00:50We celebrate Salvini in Hungary as a hero, because he closed the borders and defended
00:58the homes of the Italians.
01:03He deserves honour and not criminal proceedings.
01:13Matteo Salvini is using this event to raise his profile and gain support after Italian
01:18prosecutors requested a six-year jail sentence for refusing to disembark 147 migrants when
01:24he was interim minister in 2019.
01:27Matteo Salvini launched a petition in his defence, which has garnered around 100,000
01:34signatures so far, with more expected to be collected today.
01:39Supporters who signed the petition were given a special membership card from the League Party.
01:48The Italians understand what they want to do with the people who come to Italy.
01:58It's an invasion, but it's a critical moment. Salvini did what he had to do.
02:07And he did it very well.
02:09Whether or not Salvini's support for Patches for Europe, the third largest group in the
02:14European Parliament, could distance him from ECR president and coalition partner Prime
02:19Minister Giorgio Meloni is too early to say.
02:23Giorgia Orlandi for Euronews, in Puntida.