Tiziani Fabi, AFP | Italy deputy Prime Minister and Labour, Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio gestures during a press conference, on November 9, 2018, in Rome.

The two leaders of Italy’s ruling populist coalition on Monday publicly threw their support behind the Yellow Vest protesters agitating in neighbouring France.

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“Yellow vests, do not weaken!” Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, who heads the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), wrote on his party’s blog, echoed by his counterpart from the far-right League, Matteo Salvini.

“I support honest citizens protesting against a president who governs against his people,” Salvini said in a statement, while “firmly” condemning recent protest violence.

In an open letter to the #giletsjaunes, Italian deputy PM Di Maio encourages them to "carry on" and offers to provide them with M5S's online platform. "It's a battle we can win together. You don't give up!" https://t.co/Tg0wCdfdyW Leonardo Carella (@leonardocarella) 7 January 2019

Di Maio’s M5S has vaunted direct democracy since it began in 2009 and on Monday he offered French protesters the use of the party's so-called Rousseau system to improve organisation and “draw up an electoral programme”.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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