Italy's Salvini calls for new ECB role to guarantee state debts

ROME: Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini called on Tuesday for a new role for the European Central Bank, which should "guarantee" government debt in order to keep bond yields low.

Salvini said on Facebook he wanted a top-level European conference to discuss how to boost growth and investment and this should include the new role for the ECB to halt "speculation."

Fresh from a victory in European parliamentary elections, the leader of the right-wing League said the EU's "failed" fiscal rules should be rewritten with the focus on cutting employment, not capping budget deficits.