Salvini responded to the objections by saying that he had come to provide “aid and peace”, the daily Corriere della Sera wrote. The politician, known for his opposition to migrants from the Middle East and Africa, supported the reception of refugees from Ukraine.
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Salvini came to Przemyśl, where many people who left Ukraine are heading. During a speech with an Italian politician, the mayor of Bakun brought a T-shirt with a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin, similar to the one in which Salvini appeared in the past.
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He urged him to put on his T-shirt again and walk with him across the border or among the people expelled by the war. “I have no respect for Mr. Salvini, his presence here is impudence,” Bakun said.
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Bad adventure for Matteo Salvini at the Ukrainian-Polish border:
the mayor of Przemys refused to go with him and showed the shirt worn by the leader of the League in the European Parliament a few years ago: “No respect for you”
(🎥 @SimoneAlliva)
— Marco Bresolin (@marcobreso) March 8, 2022
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The head of the League did not react directly to the mayor’s exit and from the meeting left.
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“We are not interested in the controversy on the part of the Italian or Polish left, we have come to help those who are fleeing the war,” Salvini said later. But in the past, Bakun ran for parliament for the anti-system movement Kukiz´15.
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“We want to contribute to the coordination of aid, we want to organize transport and accommodation for these families in Italy, especially for orphans and the disabled,” Salvini said on Tuesday.
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Salvini met with Italian businessmen and representatives of the Catholic Church in Warsaw on Monday to talk about humanitarian aid for refugees.
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He thanked the Polish Prime Minister for his extraordinary efforts in the refugee crisis. “We thank Poland for a great example,” Salvini said.
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Salvini is known as a relentless fighter against migration. During his time as Minister of the Interior, he even had Italian ports closed for ships carrying migrants rescued in the Mediterranean.
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“These refugees are unadulterated and are fleeing a real war,” he said of the people expelled by the conflict in Ukraine in the Italian Senate. He added that Italy must “open the door wide” to Ukrainian refugees.
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In the past, the politician also appeared in public in a T-shirt with a picture of Putin in Red Square and said that he preferred Putin to Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
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But last week, he condemned the war in Ukraine and said it was clear in the conflict “who is the attacker and who is being attacked”, without naming Putin.
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“Salvini must remedy his past sin of prostitution, also in order to be internationally credible,” commented Massimiliano Panarari, an expert on political communication at the University of Milan.
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