During Saturday s demonstration in a main square in Rome, Italy s right-wing parties have called for a prime minister elected by the people, support for those impoverished by the pandemic and stopping illegal migration.

On a stage draped in banners reading Together for Italy and work! , right-wing Brothers for Italy (FdI) party chief Giorgia Meloni said the centre-right was representing those impoverished by the pandemic who took to the streets to have their voices heard, while Giuseppe Conte s government has locked itself into its „palaces of power.”

We want „free elections!”- the protesters chanted.

„We are Italy, we are the Italian people. The government has no clue on how to revitalise the economy, and is afraid of Italians who want to work and be able to make a living,” Ms Meloni said. Citing the pandemic-induced crisis, the government closed down the country s schools, courthouses and churches, but even „the mandatory wearing of face masks will prove insufficient to silence us”, she added.

Ms Meloni said Italy s left-wing was more interested in taking in illegal migrants than helping Italians. Sending a strong message to the EU, which demands fiscal discipline, she stressed that Italian taxpayers savings were being stolen by Dutch tax havens.

Speaking before a crowd of thousands of people, Lega chief Matteo Salvini said Italy s centre-right political parties were members of a winning team, ready to govern the country. Mr Salvini said the left should realise that Communism was over, and today it s the right wing that stands on the side those „downtrodden and forgotten.”

The Lega party chief urged the closure of Italy s borders to illegal migrants, stressing that they are being used as modern-day slaves. „We ll take in those who work and respect our culture, but those who reject the crucifix, the nativity scenes and the rosary, well, I m sorry, but they can stay outside,” he said.

Instead of the left-wing government s „aid-based economic policy,” Salvini outlined a job-creation programme. He explained that Italian cradles needed to be filled with children, as the families fears of the economic crisis will likely result in more deaths than births next year.

Antonio Tajani, vice-president of the conservative Forza Italia party, said „those guys in Budapest” were still considered to be the symbol of the struggle for European freedom.

Mr Tajani said Italy s last leader to be elected by voters, instead of thrust to the prime minister s seat through various power agreements, was Silvio Berlusconi, in 2008. „That s why Berlusconi had to be brought to justice, falsely convicted of tax fraud and expelled from parliament,” Mr Tajani said. He added that prosecutors were doing the same with Matteo Salvini, who is under investigation because of his migration policy.

The movement, without party logos but with numerous waving Italian flags, is the second right-wing demonstration in Italy since the easing of the epidemic restrictions. With this movement, the centre-right thus has launched the September provincial election campaign. The most common slogan for the protest was „freedom,” which is a quotation from the centre-right The People of Freedom coalition led by Berlusconi  that had won several previous elections.