11/12/2018 Italian government says its budget will prevent 'scenes like we've seen in Paris' - The Local Member sign-in · Become a Member Jobs in Italy Apartment rentals Noticeboard Advertise with us Pellon Group Oy Automatic livestock feeding More precission for feeding pellon. OPEN Italian government says its budget will prevent 'scenes like we've seen in Paris' Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (C) with his deputies Luigi Di Maio (L) and Matteo Salvini (R). Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP AFP/The Local [email protected] @thelocalitaly 11 December 2018 17:08 CET+01:00 France’s “yellow“yel low vest”ves t” protestsprotes t have given the Italian government new ammunition in their budget battle with Brussels, as ministers say higher ppublicublic sspendingpen ding is needed to prevent ssocialocial unrest.unrest https://www.thelocal.it/20181211/italian-government-says-its-budget-will-prevent-scenes-like-paris-protests 1/9 11/12/2018 Italian government says its budget will prevent 'scenes like we've seen in Paris' - The Local Italian Deputy Prime Minister LuigiL Di Maio saidon Tuesday that "there will be a French problem" on top of an Italian one if France’s decit breaches EU rules after Emmanuel Macron unveiled measures to quellprotests. "France will have to increase its decit and there will be a problem forFrance, if the rules are the same for everyone," said Di Maio, whose owngovernment’ss big-spending budget is facing EU disciplinarydisciplinary measurmeasures.es. And speaking at hisrally in Romeon Saturday,, Co-Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said the Italian governmentgo was taking a “very different path” to Paris. “Do people in Italy want scenes like we've seen in Paris? ... No. I want to prevent this,” he said. 'Yellow vest' protesters in Paris. Photo: AFP France’s “yellow“y ellow vest”vest” prprotestersotesters haveha taken aim at French President Emmanuel Macron’s liberalal economic policies, and hahave so far forced the French government to pay for an increaseease in the minimum wage - a potentially costly measure - as well as cancel a planned rise in taxes on petrol and diesel. Italian ministers seized on the anti-government demonstrations rocking Paris as further justication for their ‘people’s budget’, which proposes to increaseease public spending in deance of austerity measuresmeasures being followed acracross Europe – including Italy, for now. Italy's budget for 2019 was the rst in history to be rejected by Brusselsfor breakingeaking spending rules, and the populist gogovernment of Di Maio's FiveStar Movement and Matteo Salvini's far-right League is nowtrying to come upwith another draft. Brussels has insisted it will sanction Italy if its budget is not adjusted to meet European Union spending rules, focusing on the proposed decit level of 2.4 percent. READ ALSO: 'Budgetof change': Italy announces plans to end austerity Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, travellingtr to Brussels this week, is expected to argue that his government’s budget goes beyond numbers and is the only defence against the unrest and social revolt taking place across Europe, La Stampa writes. The country “can’t concentrate only on nancial stability, we also need to look at social stability,” the premier was cited as saying. “The austerity-oriented recipes of the past few years have failed.” The EU rules on public spending arear "binding for everybody, that is clear,"said senior German MEP Manfred Weber, when asked by reporters about France'snew expenditure. But he added that "what we should not do as the European Union is interveneinenein domestic policies.policies.” READ ALSO:EU slams Italy's 'unprecedented' breaking ofbudgetrules Sign up for our free This week in Italy newsletter https://www.thelocal.it/20181211/italian-government-says-its-budget-will-prevent-scenes-like-paris-protests 2/9.