(CNN) Populist Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini made a veiled reference to the late fascist dictator Benito Mussolini on Sunday.

Salvini tweeted "tanti nemici, tanto onore," meaning "so many enemies, so much honor," a variation on Mussolini's famous "molti nemici, molto onore," or "many enemies, much honor." He tweeted the comments on the anniversary of Mussolini's birth.

Salvini's tweet came in response to a magazine article about Salvini's critics, including the Catholic Church and leading left-wing intellectuals, and his coinciding rise in popularity.

Separately, in an interview with the UK's Sunday Times newspaper, Salvini, from the right-wing League party, said Italy's low birth rate is being used as an excuse to "import immigrants."

"A country which does not create children is destined to die," he said. "We have created a ministry of the family to work on fertility, nurseries, on a fiscal system which takes large families into account. At the end of this mandate, the government will be measured on the number of newborns more than on its public debt."

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