- Title: No beach bum - Salvini's seaside gambit stymies critics
- Date: 9th August 2019
- Summary: CATANIA, ITALY (AUGUST 9, 2019) (REUTERS) PEOPLE SHOWERING AT BEACH PEOPLE SUN BATHING TOURISTS AND RESIDENTS SITTING BY BEACH AND SWIMMING VARIOUS OF WOMAN READING NEWSPAPER VIEW OF CATANIA BEACH / PEOPLE WALKING / RESCUE BOAT GIRLS SWIMMING (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) CATANIA RESIDENT, MARIA LANERI, SAYING: ''I think that (the leader of the 5-Star Movement Luigi) Di Maio and (the leader of the League Matteo) Salvini should try to get along with each other. The 5-Star have achieved a lot and the economy is doing much better now, particularly with their citizen income policies. The economy is starting to move. And Salvini as well has achieved a lot. Sicily was invaded by migrants. This is not a question of racism. But there are too few jobs available for us and if we host all these people there will be no more work left. I think Salvini and Di Maio are two great people who should make peace for the good of Italy.'' VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SUN BATHING (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) CATANIA RESIDENT, GABRIELE ANTONIO SCIUTO, SAYING: "As a young man, I am quite fed up with this state of things, both economically and politically. It is not nice to see such a beautiful country in the hands of such ''ugly'' Italians. They are so incompetent, this is the truth. Both Salvini and Di Maio are unable to rule.'' TOURISTS AND RESIDENTS SITTING BY BEACH AND SWIMMING (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) CATANIA RESIDENT, PINA SCIUTO, SAYING: ''We expected the government to fall any minute now. I can only say that Salvini was a great disappointment. And not from now. I have been writing it on his social media channels. I wrote to him: '' you have let me down, you did not do for Sicily what you had to do. Full stop.'' He is from the League, he only cares about Italy's North.'' PEOPLE SUN BATHING CHILDREN PLAYING (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) SHARON GIRAFFA, SAYING: ''As far as Salvini's tour goes, I don't really like it. If he goes to the beach to swim is fine but if he comes to do politics there are other places for that. The sea is not made for (politics). VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SUN BATHING
- Embargoed: 23rd August 2019 18:25
- Keywords: 5 Star Movement Italy Giuseppe Conte Italian government government crisis Rome Politics Beaches Matteo Salvini
- Location: CATANIA, ITALY
- City: CATANIA, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001ARHZ2H3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Italians take their August beach holidays very seriously and politicians traditionally avoid disturbing them for fear of losing votes. But Matteo Salvini has little time for tradition and nowhere is taboo for his high-octane, non-stop campaigning.
When the leader of the right-wing League announced on Thursday (August 8) that he was pulling the plug on the year-old coalition with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, he did it from the Adriatic beach town of Pescara.
He had prepared the ground with a fiery speech the night before in Sabaudia, a seaside resort on the Mediterranean coast, south of Rome. Both were stops on a "beach tour" which he hopes will lead him to triumph at elections in a couple of months.
Shrugging off frowns from high-brow commentators and opponents, Salvini has made the beaches his political stage, a perfect venue for his down-market, "man-of-the-people" persona - and the more crowded and less exclusive they are the better.
''As far as Salvini's tour goes, I don't really like it. If he goes to the beach to swim is fine but if he comes to do politics there are other places for that. The sea is not made for (politics)." said Sharon Giraffa, a 19-year-old girl from Catania.
A national election campaign in August in unprecedented in post-war Italy, and among those on Catania beach in Sicily, Salvini's move to sink the government was the main talking point - and he had some supporters but plenty of critics.
''I think Salvini and Di Maio are two great people who should make peace for the good of Italy'' said Maria Laneri, from Catania.
Gabriele Antonio Sciuto, a young man also from Catania, will not miss the present government when it is gone.
"It is not nice to see such a beautiful country in the hands of such ''ugly'' Italians'' he said. ''Both Salvini and Di Maio are unable to rule. They are so incompetent, this is the truth" he added.
(Production: Antonio Parrinello, Antonio Denti, Oriana Boselli) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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