Matteo Salvini is the leader of the Northern League (Lega Nord) in Italy. He was one of the speakers invited to the party congress of the Front National in Lyon last weekend (November 29-30, 2014), along with leaders of other European anti-immigration parties.

Below is the speech given by Mr. Salvini at the event. Many thanks to par0 for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

28:29 Sorry for the shirt. By the way, we tell the Italian journalists with our body…

28:35 Dear friends, thank you for this invitation.

28:39 Never did I think I would have the chance to appear on the stage of the Congress of Front National.

28:46 Best wishes for the Congress.

28:49 Not for the differences between our differing political experiences,

28:53 but for the knowledge that together we represent the only possibility of redemption of our peoples

29:02 against the European super-state, against the single thought and the robbery of our sovereignty.

29:14 The people in Italy reward the Lega because it is capable of being effective and gives answers to real problems.

29:21 Breaking through the barrier of membership in one party or another.

29:26 Trying to put priorities at the forefront – the role which should be that of all the ruling class.

29:30 Acting only the interests of our own people, not of any others.

29:35 and for those who thought they could write off our history, our know-how, our identity,

29:40 these values are populism, we are populists,

29:46 and therefore I say “Long live the populists in Europe, I am proud to be a populist.”

29:54 We are proud to give again a voice for our people and on these values

29:57 we have found the tenacity and courage of Marine Le Pen and all the Front National.

30:06 It is not an alliance of convenience, but the choice of wanting to put together our experience on the points in common,

30:14 and that today are very important.

30:17 The Lega Nord remains and will remain a movement for autonomy. We cannot hide that

30:21 our people have been submissive for too many years.

30:25 The interference from an oppressive, centralized state deaf to the needs of the people of Padania.

30:30 Today, however, the moment has come to unite to combat a common enemy that puts in danger

30:34 the very existence of our communities.

30:38 Without the reconstruction of Europe and the reconquest of the spirit of collaboration and solidarity

30:43 between its states, territorial boundaries do not exist,

30:48 because the threat that we have in front of us is crushing businesses, societies and any prospect of well-being for our children.

30:56 I will continue and the Lega with me to claim that different peoples receive different answers

31:06 tailored to their economic and cultural reality, but the road we have in front of us together with conviction

31:11 is that of managing the dismantling of the mechanism in Brussels that to the contrary

31:16 want us subjects, all the same at any cost in the presence of the great interests which govern Europe today.

31:23 They want us as simple consumers of products and services that arrive from other parts of the world.

31:34 We proudly defend the small unit that is the majority and the spinal cord of our society.

31:41 We ask that they can express their capability, they want legality and security, and no longer accept

31:46 that their resources serve to sustain immigration policies

31:52 that do not produce integration, but only decline and delinquency in our cities.

32:00 The first common objective is therefore the battle, after decades of false do-goodism of the Left,

32:05 against wild immigration, that is no longer sustainable both socially and economically.

32:12 We pay for a model that has been a complete failure, that during these years has been imposed

32:18 to take account of the role that the new poor have had in the lowering the social protection and wages of everyone else.

32:25 The suburbs of the cities from Milan to Lyon, from Rome to Paris, burn,

32:29 and those who have set fire to them accuse us of stirring up hate.

32:35 However they, however the Left, however the “gauche” have dismantled any rule that enabled us

32:40 to make the distinction between the honest and dishonest.

32:45 Independently of their origin, in the chaos and decay there is no longer justice for anybody.

32:54 In this historic phase that sees politics in continual evolution it is even more necessary

32:58 that our parties confront each other and update each other.

33:03 and the international scene in continual evolution offers us insane choices, just think of Russia.

33:10 To the crazy policy taken up by those who govern Europe, certainly not in the interest of European citizens.

33:17 Businesses, entrepreneurs, workers that represent the French and Italian excellence of production tell us this strongly.

33:26 the commercial war against Russia not only will not bring a geopolitical advantage but will also hurt our businesses.

33:41 What sense is there starting a commercial war against the main bulwark against

33:46 the spreading of international terrorism of Islamic extremism? It doesn’t make sense.

33:56 Why should we instead listen to those with an insane foreign policy from Libya to Afghanistan, from Iraq to Syria

34:07 who have equipped bloody extremists with the possibility of development and growth,

34:11 and even now offered entire states and territories.

34:16 We know that together with you we represent the real Europe, the one that today

34:20 lies beneath the dust of relativism and homogenization,

34:24 but which exists and should be rediscovered, it exists in hearts, in personal histories, traditions and the families of each one of us,

34:31 the Europe which looks to the value of the traditional family, to the concept of work as

34:36 the necessary foundation for the dignity of man.

34:44 Work has to be freed from the yoke of the single currency, there is no other possible solution

34:48 for the French people, like the Italian people are also beginning to understand.

34:53 Enough euro! Enough euro! Enough euro, stop!

35:02 Dismantling the system of flexible exchanges of national currencies impeded our productive sectors

35:06 from reacting accordingly to the financial crisis,

35:10 and we are uselessly continuing along a route downwards on wages, social welfare

35:14 to remain competitive on the markets,

35:18 no longer being able to count on our own currency, to renders the cost of our products competitive.

35:30 The fortress of Brussels and the euro is crumbling from the hits of the fundamental principles of the economy,

35:36 only he who has had the presumption to create a European sentiment starting from a currency

35:40 could have thought it would be a sustainable model.

35:46 It was not an error in good faith. We know from this state of affairs that few,

35:50 very few in Europe profit from it, and many lose out .

35:54 We are witnessing every day the u-turn of many of the advocates of those choices in the face of reality.

36:01 The less prudent think that proclaiming simply against austerity, that the effect is the euro

36:06 and not the cause, can still think to maintain the status quo, taking advantage of the popular consensus.

36:13 Only smoke in the eye, exactly like the proclamations of investing today in growth,

36:17 history will remember them perfectly, all of them,

36:22 all of them who handed out the keys of our home to the hands of others,

36:26 to the big interests and the banks, these people will pay in the pages of history.

36:32 And history in the same way will remember who has had the courage to raise their heads,

36:37 to not sell out their communities, our work in exchange for some guarantee or position.

36:45 all those who say that we need more Europe to get out of the crisis, in reality think that they do not have to

36:49 occupy themselves with the Europe of the people.

36:52 In Italy we are creating an alternative to this scenario of desolation and unemployment.

36:58 We are the forefront against the European monster, that today has only learnt to show itself with more docile faces,

37:03 all useless, because the people have started to realize who really looks out for their interests.

37:14 We hope that in this regard a real European coordination will arise in which, remembering

37:18 each country’s personal histories, the French people can be the spearhead giving

37:22 the first and decisive shove to this Europe.

37:28 Long live the Europe of the people of the nations! Long live President Marine, the Lega Nord and Front National!