Bernd Lücke, German MEP and member of the European conservatives and reformists group, claimed Italy has seen no growth since joining the euro 20 years ago.
He said: “There are two causes that encouraged the Italian voters to elect this government.
“One if dissatisfaction with the handling of the migration crisis in the European Union.
“The other cause is the economic misery which we have witnessed now in Italy for the last 20 years.
“Basically since Italy has acceded to the euro Italy has not seen any sort of growth.
“This hits Italy very severely because other countries are growing and sometimes growing strongly and voters are asking whose responsibility is this and then they become disenchanted with the former governments and they vote for some type of protest parties.”
Roberto Guiltier, Italian MEP for the Socialists and Democrats Group, argued that blaming the EU for the ills of Italy was too simplistic.
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