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Italy’s Anti-Immigrant Populist Leader Denies Conflict with Pope
Crux ^ | 8/12/19 | John Allen Jr

Posted on 08/15/2019 5:41:44 PM PDT by marshmallow

ROME - Italy’s most famous populist and hardliner on immigration, and the man now seemingly poised to take control of the country all by himself, has denied that there’s any conflict between himself and Pope Francis and said meeting the pontiff would be a “great honor.”

Matteo Salvini, currently Italy’s Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, made the comments in a forthcoming interview with the Italian magazine Oggi (“Today”).

“Millions of Italians voted for me - for the most part, I believe, Catholics - [so that] I’ll defend the borders and suppress the traffic in human beings,” Salvini said. “My duty is to make decisions, sometimes painful and difficult, but necessary to establish rules that benefit everyone.”

“Beyond some excessive polemics that I don’t share, I believe the occasions in which we collaborate [with the Vatican] are far more numerous” than cases of conflict, Salvini told the magazine.

Salvini took office in 2018 as part of a coalition government between his far-right League party and the left-wing Five Star movement. Last week, Salvini announced he was pulling out of that coalition and called for new elections, immediately switching to campaign mode with large rallies touting his tough anti-immigrant stance.

Those policies, including refusing to allow boats carrying refugees rescued from the Mediterranean Sea to dock in Italian ports, have drawn wide protest both domestically and internationally. Over the weekend, even the Hollywood icon Richard Gere got in on the act, boarding a ship operated by the Spanish NGO Open Arms carrying 160 migrants and calling Salvini’s refusal to let it dock “shameful.”

(Excerpt) Read more at cruxnow.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Religion & Politics
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1 posted on 08/15/2019 5:41:44 PM PDT by marshmallow
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Sorry, was picking my nose. So did pope Beelzebub pontificate about something again?


2 posted on 08/15/2019 5:55:45 PM PDT by dsrtsage (For Leftists, World History starts every day at breakfast)
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To: marshmallow

ya ,listen to this Pope and be back in the dark ages overnight


3 posted on 08/15/2019 5:56:27 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: marshmallow

The last I heard from pervert Francis he was verbalizing rape fantasies. “Aging lady Europe needs fertilizing by young Muslim men”.

Sick man.


4 posted on 08/15/2019 7:47:49 PM PDT by Dagnabitt
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