Secretary Angelo Attaguile | Deputy President Raffaele Volpi Founded 19 December 2014 | |
Ideology PopulismFederalismRegionalismProtectionismEuroscepticismAnti-immigration | ||
Us with Salvini (Italian: Noi con Salvini, NcS), is a populist political party in Italy, whose main campaign themes are Euroscepticism and a strong stance against illegal immigration. The party, founded by Matteo Salvini on 19 December 2014, is considered the sister party of Lega Nord (LN) for Lazio, southern Italy and Sardinia.
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Salvini is the party's president, Raffaele Volpi (a senator of Lega Nord) vice-president, while Angelo Attaguile, formerly a member of the Party of Sicilians, who was the first deputy to join the party, secretary and leader in Sicily.
History
Soon after the European Parliament election held in May 2014, Matteo Salvini, federal secretary of Lega Nord (LN), proposed the creation of a sister party for the regions of Italy where the LN is not active.
On 19 December Salvini presented the new party during a press conference in Rome.
Since its early months of activity, NcS formed ties with several local activists and organisations, stretching from Souad Sbai, a former deputy of The People of Freedom (PdL) of Moroccan origin and leading anti-Islamist, to the Italian nationalist and neo-fascist CasaPound. On 8 February 2015 Salvini and Attaguile, a deputy, launched the Sicilian section of the party in Palermo: in the event, he apologised for Lega Nord's past rhetoric towards the South.
On 27 February the LN and NcS organised a joint rally in Rome. Along with Salvini and Luca Zaia, the speakers at the rally featured the representatives of some social/professional associations and trade unions (including Claudio Ardizio, a local leader of The Other Europe, a left-wing electoral coalition), the aforementioned Souad Sbai, the leader of New Italy Party and flat tax supporter Armando Siri, the president of Brothers of Italy (FdI) Giorgia Meloni and the deputy leader of CasaPound Simone Di Stefano, who spoke on behalf of the newly organised Sovereignty association.
In November Salvini organised a rally in Bologna and invited Silvio Berlusconi, leader of Forza Italia (FI) to speak, along with Meloni. CasaPound/Sovereignty, which was not invited, disliked Salvini's "moderate" turn and deserted the rally. Both Salvini and CasaPound leaders confirmed that the two parties would not cooperate anymore due to different views.
Three deputies, other than Attaguile, have since joined the party: Barbara Saltamartini (ex-AN/PdL/NCD), Giuseppina Castiello (ex-AN/PdL/FI) and Alessandro Pagano (ex-FI/PdL/NCD).
In April 2016 it was announced that Irene Pivetti, a former President of the Chamber of Deputies who had left the LN in 1996 and was then president of the Italy–China Development Foundation, would head the party's slate in the upcoming municipal election in Rome.
In the 2016 local elections the LN did well in the Centre-North, especially in its stronghold Veneto, while the NcS obtained negligible results, including 2.7% in Rome.
Ideology
NcS embraces a very critical view of the European Union (EU), especially of the Euro, which Matteo Salvini once described a "crime against mankind". The party is also quite opposed to illegal immigration, which has emerged in 2012 as a serious problem for Italy, especially for the South.
On economic issues, NcS supports flat tax, tax cuts, fiscal federalism, protectionism and, to some extent, agrarianism. On social issues, NcS opposes same-sex marriage and the EU's management of immigration, while it supports family values and the legalisation of brothels. In foreign policy NcS opposes the international embargo against Russia of 2014 and supported an economic opening to Eastern Europe and to countries of the Far East such as North Korea.
NcS's political positions are near to the French National Front and of the Dutch Party for Freedom.