Italy: 'I simply did my duty', says Salvini over charges for holding migrants at sea

*NO CUTAWAYS AT SOURCE*
W/S League leader Matteo Salvini taking selfie with young supporters on stage, Rome
W/S Audience singing Italy's anthem
W/S Salvini supporters waving flag of League
SOT, Matteo Salvini, League leader (Italian): "I confess that, however, last Wednesday in the Senate talking not to senators, not to Italians.. because the most complicated thing for me - which some moron from the left and also some moron of a journalist didn't get - it was not explaining to senators that I wanted to go to trial, it was not explaining to voters that I am not a criminal and I simply did my duty. The hard part was explaining to my children - who are not seeing me in Milan today but are seeing me in Rome with you - that their dad is a decent person who did his job, not as a children's kidnapper, or someone responsible for people's hunger. He is a person who did his job. With all his limits and flaws."
SOT, Matteo Salvini, League leader (Italian): "I thank our MEPs: these days we are talking about free trade agreements with other European countries, but it's not possible to compete unfairly with our entrepreneurs, traders and farmers. These days, journalists are putting labels on headlines, 'sovereignists' and 'populists', asking me 'what are you doing, you want to leave Europe.' No guys. We are in Europe and we want to change the rules from within."
SOT, Matteo Salvini, League leader (Italian): "We fight to change the rules of Europe on banks, trade, agriculture, immigration, but if Europe doesn't change, if I have to choose between saving the European bureaucracy or Italians, the Italians always come first: work, pensions, health and the future of Italians. It is not about being Eurosceptic, it is about not being morons, simple as that."
SOT, Matteo Salvini, League leader (Italian): "Sanctions on Russia have removed 50% of the export of Italian footwear in the world, tell me if it is normal. I continue to believe that having economic, cultural, political and commercial relations with Russia is a duty for any intelligent person. But not because Putin pays me. They are looking for millions of Russian bribes in oil. But where the fuck do I hide the oil? Even if I wanted to hide it, I have a two-room apartment in Milan, where do I put the rubles?"
W/S Salvini leaving
SOT, League party supporter (Italian): "The Captain is right, surely. It is an injustice made by this government against Salvini. Salvini and Meloni take millions of votes because they promised what they did. In contrast with them. The Five Star Movement had promised to close the ports and then it didn't, and now they send Salvini on trial, it's a scandal."
W/S Exterior of building with League flags
SOT, League party supporter (Italian): "It is yet another attack without political sense. They use the judiciary as they want to eliminate an opponent that they cannot beat in the polls."
C/U Flag of League party
SCRIPT
League Party leader Matteo Salvini met with supporters at an event in Rome on Sunday, four days after Italy's Senate authorised prosecutors to put him on trial over charges of illegally detaining migrants at sea in August 2019.
"I am not a criminal and I simply did my duty... the hard part was explaining to my children that their dad is a decent person who did his job, not as a children's kidnapper, or someone responsible for people's hunger," he claimed.
The League leader denied being a 'Eurosceptic' and said League party aims at changing the European institutions from within, but he stressed he would always prioritise Italians over what he called the 'European bureaucracy.'
Speaking about Italy's relations with Russia, Salvini said that EU's sanctions against Russia hit Italy's exports. "I continue to believe that having economic, cultural, political and commercial relations with Russia is a duty for any intelligent person," he explained.
Wednesday's vote came after a court in Catania recommended that Salvini stand trial on charges of illegally detaining over 110 rescued migrants at sea for days, on the coast guard ship Gregoretti.
The court overruled a prosecutor in charge of the initial investigation who had requested the case's closure and will be now obliged to go forward. The prosecutor may still appeal once more for the case to be dropped, but a judge will have a final say.