On January 21 a summit of immigration-critical and EU-skeptical political leaders was convened in the German city of Koblenz. Frauke Petry of the AfD (Germany), Matteo Salvini of the Lega Nord (Italy), Marine Le Pen of the Front National (France), and Geert Wilders of the PVV (Netherlands), among other prominent “populist” politicians, met to discuss the dismantling of the European Union.

Below is the address given by Matteo Salvini of the Lega Nord. Mr. Salvini’s ad-hoc interjections in English — including a reference to the earthquake in Italy that had just occurred three days previously — have not been subtitled, and are not included in the transcript.

Many thanks to FouseSquawk for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

00:00 We greet an Italian his country can truly be proud of.

00:04 We greet Matteo Salvini.

01:20 I thank you for organizing this historic meeting,

01:23 and I recognize Frauke Petry and all of Alternative for Germany.

01:26 My wishes for a fruitful and long-lasting collaboration

01:29 among the European Group of Nations and Liberty.

01:32 We can say with enthusiasm that a bet has already been won.

01:39 Three years ago we bet on the fact that not all was lost for Europe and its peoples

01:44 Today finally a wind of liberty is blowing across the whole world affecting the hearts of citizens.

02:02 Here today is an inspiration for the many people squashed by a ruinous model

02:06 that wanted to impose globalization without rules.

02:11 Here today there is hope for all

02:15 that the downward spiral of undeserved authority

02:18 of the European Union and its elite can be interrupted.

02:22 That a new epoch of well-being, of rights,

02:26 the restoration of national sovereignty,

02:29 and the protection of the identity and liberty of the people.

02:33 This is a historic day The course…

02:42 It is our task to be the vehicle of this grand change. We have a great responsibility.

02:49 Of a Europe that is still trying to construct a subordinate role

02:54 based on competition among the poor,

02:58 becoming a marketing outlet for the production of others,

03:02 and that would give the least direction to Europeans themselves.

03:06 Entire peoples displaced without scruples through uncontrolled immigration,

03:14 which has nothing to do with solidarity,

03:17 and which serves only to create a new lowering of standards,

03:21 of strips away the rights and incomes of European workers.

03:29 This immigration is also an instrument

03:33 to dismantle the values that have grown alongside the development of this continent.

03:38 They have formed a successor identity which finally the European peoples are rejecting.

03:47 At last it is no longer taboo to speak also of the fact that in Germany there exists an imbalance

03:53 in economic politics. The success of Alternative For Germany shows that

04:00 this model of the European Union with respect to Germany, to Merkel,

04:04 is also proving counterproductive for a large proportion of the German people.

04:31 We all are aware that the euro,

04:35 the euro is a failed experiment — criminal.

04:40 Therefore, as men of the State, we need to prepare ourselves for the post-euro time.

04:48 I hope that Germany will realize the fact that maintaining the euro sooner or later

04:52 will have to increase the quota and monetary transfer to the periphery.

04:57 We in Italy know this situation well.

05:00 In northern Italy, every year and for years, 100 billion euros are transferred to the central state.

05:10 And this system creates discontent in both those who have to pay

05:14 and those who receive, because it hinders true development.

05:17 If Germany continues in this policy, it will dry up the roots upon which its growth rests.

05:25 The faster we leave Europe (EU) the better it will be for all.

05:28 We… up to now have only paid,

05:33 but sooner or later, we will arrive (at the point) we have to ask (beg).

05:36 We don’t want, Italy doesn’t want to ask. Italy has no need for alms.

05:41 We know from our experience that it doesn’t work.

05:44 We envision a Europe where no state has to say ‘thank you’ or has to pay on behalf of others.

05:51 Each independent and free to choose its own path of development,

05:57 each with its own strength, own at its own speed. Free.

06:11 Free to trade among ourselves, but free to be able to impose duties

06:16 on products that arrive from China or India.

06:19 (We want) an equal union without debt or credit.

06:24 We have already studied [unintelligible] different methods of dismantling the euro,

06:29 and we think it is in everyone’s interest to work towards an orderly solution,

06:35 since the costs for an uncontrolled collapse of the currency

06:38 would be too expensive a price to pay for a project that has already cost us too much.

06:43 The contest at Koblenz, as in London and Washington

06:47 is between globalization without rules and respecting the need for people’s liberty.

06:54 Respect for our identity. Before I am European, I am a citizen of Milan,

06:58 I am a citizen of Lombardy, I am a citizen of Italy.

07:02 Europe only comes afterwards.

07:12 And in general, I would say there is a need for normality, as Geert (Wilders) said,

07:18 to restore some fundamental regulations for a mechanism that

07:24 continues to ask for an unsustainable sacrifice for many to the advantage of a few.

07:28 I think the better concept is to rediscover a balance between the protection of rights

07:33 and the capacity to receive immigrants,

07:36 within the role of Europe and legitimate defense of national interests.

07:41 Responsible governments, elected by the citizens must return in all areas to national interests.

07:49 That is our objective. Send Merkel, Renzi and Hollande home.

08:00 Notwithstanding the propaganda and half-truths

08:03 That occurred in the United Kingdom and then the United States,

08:06 which tried to delegitimize the popular vote,

08:10 because today here they say there are losers, populists,

08:17 poorly informed people, people who are too simple

08:21 to understand the great miracles of the grand financial elites.

08:25 And I say: long live the populists, long live the nationalists, and long live this gathering!

08:35 Finally, different realities are together with common values [unintelligible] us benefits,

08:40 the sovereignty of peoples, attained through the sacrifices

08:43 of millions of men and non-negotiable values.

08:46 Without regaining the instruments that they have taken from us,

08:51 there is no useful politics. There is no difference between right and left.

08:57 Their objective is simply that someone else come from outside

09:00 to command over the heads of the citizens

09:03 and evade any democratic control.

09:08 Someone…(applause) Someone should return to caring about the destiny of our youth

09:16 and the fact that today young people do not have the prospect of a life

09:20 worthy of the name. No certainty of being able to employ their talents,

09:26 no guarantee of being able to raise a family, no prospect other than survival only.

09:32 I don’t want our youth to be condemned to (only) survive

09:37 in Berlin, as in Paris, as in Amsterdam, as in Milan.

09:49 (Just) think that in Italy, four young people out of ten

09:53 under the age of 24 have no job.

09:57 and the few newly employed are retained because they work just a few hours a week,

10:02 thanks to the laws imposed by Europe,

10:06 thanks to a law, thanks to a law like your reform HARTZ

10:09 which have decreed that the new instruments to be competitive

10:13 must be only those of lowering the salaries and taking away the rights from workers.

10:19 This is not the future I envision for our youth.

10:22 Someone has to protect our people from Islamic terrorism,

10:26 which uses mass immigration,

10:29 profiting from the policies of the European Union and Mrs. Merkel,

10:33 to affirm that Europe is theirs.

10:36 Europe is not Islamic. Europe is ours.

10:41 The future is ours… Europe is not and never will be Islamic.

10:52 In respect to the laws and to the retaking and defense of borders,

10:55 there is not only the fight against terrorism.

10:58 There is the true solidarity dedicated to those who truly suffer.

11:02 There is respect for the actual individual, for him who respects the laws

11:05 and is willing to contribute to the destiny of the country.

11:08 For these respectable immigrants there will always be a home in this Europe and in our future,

11:16 but only for respectable immigrants.

11:19 I am sure we will win many of these contests in the months ahead, and we will also be occupied

11:24 in unmasking attempts, which we see in France and Italy

11:29 to reconduct this [unintelligible] with false anti-system movements,

11:34 created by the same system to divide us and to control dissent.

11:40 I am sure that this group has a great capacity of cohesion,

11:44 and I am proud to be able to assure you that the Lega Nord [Northern League]

11:48 will be in the front line to unmask this palace manoeuvre.

11:53 We have…

12:01 We have a responsibility to be protagonists in a crucial phase for a continent

12:06 We are probably the first of a new class of leaders

12:11 Who will be called to put the interests of our people first, because

12:15 this is the moment for courageous choices,

12:18 if we want to maintain peace and defend democracy.

12:21 In saluting you and thanking each of you

12:25 for the pledge that everyone together is placing in this battle,

12:30 I borrow from one of the points of the electoral program of Alternative für Deutschland

12:35 that I find particularly current for the present political time.

12:39 The respect for the right and the word given

12:43 that is a useful call to all free men and women, to all of us,

12:48 in the face of expectations of millions of European citizens

12:52 who want rapid action and know that a new Europe is possible,

13:01 and citing Mr Trump…

13:12 (In German) A new Europe is possible…