Italy: Salvini asked about kissing of rosary during Conte resignation speech

*NO CUTAWAYS AT SOURCE*
SOT, Journalist (Italian): "Did you kiss the rosary during Conte's words?"
Matteo Salvini, Italian Interior Minister and League party leader (Italian): "Is it a crime?"
Journalist (Italian): "No, we ask for confirmation."
Matteo Salvini, Italian Interior Minister and League party leader (Italian): "I have it in my pocket.
No, but I don't exhibit. Can I go to the chamber with the rosary of the Madonna of Medjugorie without anyone being offended and considering it a danger to democracy? Then everyone believes or does not believe, for heaven's sake."
Journalist (Italian): "On this Conte reproached you."
Matteo Salvini, Italian Interior Minister and League party leader (Italian): "I remember Conte with Padre Pio in the transmission of Bruno Vespa. And obviously I never allow myself to complain, everyone is free to believe or not. I repeat: What surprised me is that I expected a President of the Council, I tried hard to do it in half the time and with half the role, to design the Italy of the next 30 years, not that he accuses the Minister of the Interior of being the worst danger to democracy in Europe. But everyone does as he pleases, if one is calm because he does not fear the vote he can do everything. They make a big crowd? Let them."
Journalist (Italian): "Are there margins for manoeuvring with the Five Star Movement? Conte will go to resign today."
Matteo Salvini, Italian Interior Minister and League party leader (Italian): "If Conte fired himself and tomorrow negotiations with the Democratic Party begin, it means that the road had already been marked. I already said this last week, you will remember. Di Maio said "let's cut parliamentarians and then let`s vote as soon as possible". So be it, let's cut the parliamentarians and then vote as soon as possible, but evidently it wasn't their priority."
SOT, Matteo Renzi, Former Italian Prime Minister (Italian): "I think that Salvini has reversed, but above all he made a political error. You can legitimately have doubts about this government, indeed, we are so convinced of the doubts about this government that we think this government has been a failure. But you can't open a crisis in the dark, in the middle of August and risk increasing VAT. If the VAT increases it is a recession for Italy. It is a dramatic thing: not realising that merchants, artisans, families risk paying the bill, a really costly bill for this choice is an irresponsible act. Therefore today Matteo Salvini acted irresponsibly and this decision of Matteo Salvini is a decision that Italians know how to recognise as such, madness."
SCRIPT
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi commented on events that unfolded during a heated Senate session at which Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced his resignation, in Rome on Tuesday.
"What surprised me is that I expected a President of the Council [Conte], I tried hard to do it in half the time and with half the role, to design the Italy of the next 30 years, not to accuse the interior minister of being the worst danger to democracy in Europe," said Salvini.
Conte made multiple remarks about Salvini while announcing his resignation and scolded him for using Christian symbols in his campaigns, which he says does not reflect the secular status of the government. The interior minister responded to this afterwards, saying: "can I go to the chamber with the rosary of the Madonna of Medjugorie without anyone being offended and considering it a danger to democracy?"
Salvini apparently denied exhibiting the rosary in the chamber, despite images emerging appearing to show him kissing a set of Catholic prayer beads during Conte's resignation speech.
Renzi for his part said he was alarmed at the potential impact on the economy. "You can't open a crisis in the dark, in the middle of August and risk increasing VAT. If the VAT increases it is a recession for Italy. It is a dramatic thing: not realising that merchants, artisans, families risk paying the bill, a really costly bill for this choice is an irresponsible act."
Last week Salvini filed a motion of no-confidence against Conte in the hope that it would lead to snap elections, following a disagreement with his coalition partners, the Five Star Movement (M5S). The Senate decided to have Conte address them first, during which he announced his resignation.
Following consultations, Italian President Sergio Mattarella will have to decide whether to go ahead with new elections or try and have a new government formed from existing parliamentary parties.