FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Lega Is the Top Party in Italy Polls

June 19, 2018 (EIRNS)—A poll conducted for the national TV channel La7 shows that the Lega would become the first party if Italian elections were held today. The margin with the M5S, coming second, is tiny—29.2% against 29%—but the growth is spectacular compared to its March 4 election result, when the Lega got about half as many votes as the Cinquestelle (M5S).

Italians are backing Lega head and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s hard line on illegal immigrants, but also other aggressive moves in defense of Italian producers against the EU, such as Agriculture Minister Gian Marco Centinaio’s decision to veto the CETA free trade agreement between the EU and Canada. Today, Centinaio was in Brussels at a meeting on EU agricultural policy and delivered another broadside, demanding protection for Italian rice and sugar producers, hit hard by the EU free trade policies.