MILAN — Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini hoped his campaign to take over the European Union would reach a crescendo Saturday afternoon, at a packed rally addressed by many of Europe's far-right leaders, flanked by the city's famous Galleria and Duomo. It didn't work out.

The crowd was thin, the rain poured, and locals protested the rally.

Then there's Salvini's poll numbers. While Salvini's League tops the polls in Italy, across Europe his alliance is on track to win just 70 of the European Parliament's 751 seats, a number that hasn't budged in the month since he announced his new alliance.

Speakers addressed the crowd under a banner reading "Italy First" and included far-right leaders such as France's Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, and representatives of the Conservative People's Party of Estonia which recently joined the country's government.

Most troubling for Salvini is a growing scandal in the Austrian far-right Freedom Party which claimed the scalp of Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache. The Freedom Party is a key member of Salvini's alliance, and the Italian has enjoyed warm relations with the deposed Strache.

“Our rigorous immigration policy is allowing us to save lives." — Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini

Speaking in Zagreb ahead of a campaign rally for her center-right European Peoples' Party, German Chancellor Angela Merkel slammed Strache as a politician "for sale." Making an official visit to Croatian PM Andrej Plenković, Merkel urged voters to "act decisively" against forces that "despise our values and wish to destroy our Union.”

A consistent theme across the Salvini rally speeches was a call to return to a "common sense" European past. Figures from the past, from Leonardo da Vinci to Margaret Thatcher received cheers, while leaders from the present —from Angela Merkel to fellow Italian Mario Draghi — were booed.

Alternative for Germany MEP Jörg Meuthen singled out EU officials for particular criticism. “Let us call them by name: Draghi, Macron, Juncker, Schulz, Timmermans, Merkel, Weber, you are arrogant technocrats and we will kick you out of the parliament,” he said.

The rally featured projected videos of Salvini and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán climbing watch towers at the Hungary’s border fence.

Salvini invoked the spirit of Pope John Paul II, urging voters to "free this continent from occupation [by the EU]."

Con il vicepremier austriaco Strache, amici e alleati per difendere i nostri popoli! @HCStracheFP pic.twitter.com/B9uwEsxW7F — Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) June 19, 2018

In what appeared an attempt to project a moderate image, Salvini also mentioned a dozen saints and Giovanni Falcone, the Sicilian prosecutor killed in 1992 by the Mafia who is the national symbol of the war against organized crime, leaving passersby bewildered.

Salvini painted his tough immigration policies as lifesaving. “Our rigorous immigration policy is allowing us to save lives. In 2015 and 2016, 15,000 people died in the Mediterranean, since my policies kicked the figure is down to 1,000,” he said.

Steve Bannon, the U.S. political campaigner admired by many in Salvini's alliance, said in an interview from Paris that success for the Euroskeptics would be a boost for President Donald Trump's reelection campaign. “If populists score more than 30 percent in the [European Parliament election] it will create a momentum for Trump in 2020,” he told Le Parisien.

Rym Momtaz, Ivan Fischer and Ryan Heath contributed reporting.