The European Commissioner responsible for the budget Günther Oettinger has once again launched a salvo of attacks against the populist Italian government, accusing them of wanting to “destroy Europe”.
Oettinger lamented the current state of the European Union, claiming that the populist eurosceptic coalition of the League and the Five Star Movement (M5S) were actively looking to harm the political bloc, Il Giornale reports.
“In my opinion, the project (European Union) approaches mortal danger,” Oettinger said.
“Some inside Europe want to weaken it or even destroy it,” he added, listing several countries including the populist Italian government, as well as Poland and Hungary, which have been at odds with the Commission in Brussels over migrant redistribution and other domestic issues.
The attack on the League, which is led by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, and M5s, which is led by Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Social Policies Luigi Di Maio, is not the first from Oettinger who threatened the Italians last week with potential EU sanctions.
The threat was made in response to a statement from Di Maio, which received support from Salvini, to potentially cut off Italian funding to the European Union and to use the country’s veto on the European budget.
The origin of the conflict between the EU and Rome largely revolves around the unsolved migrant issue in which the Italians would like to see other members of the political bloc share in the burden of taking in newly arrived migrants.
The Italians have made the demand a condition for allowing migrants to once again enter Italy following the orders of Salvini to close Italian ports to migrant transport NGO vessels earlier this year.
Salvini has slammed other European leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron who he called a hypocrite for demanding Italy allow migrants into the country while France has extended border controls.
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