Moscow lights up the Italian election campaign

It was inevitable that in Italy, the country that has traditionally been considered a bridge between the West and Moscow, the war in Ukraine and the firmness against Russia would play a decisive role in the electoral campaign for the early elections to be held on September 25.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
27 August 2022 Saturday 17:32
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Moscow lights up the Italian election campaign

It was inevitable that in Italy, the country that has traditionally been considered a bridge between the West and Moscow, the war in Ukraine and the firmness against Russia would play a decisive role in the electoral campaign for the early elections to be held on September 25. The Russian question has ignited the battle towards the polls after messages from the Kremlin have been sent about the vote, that the left is denouncing interference and that the sanctions have divided the right-wing coalition, the favorite to win these elections.

Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right League, has called this week to reconsider the economic punishment imposed by the European Union on Moscow, arguing that he would not like "they were fueling the war." “I ask to assess the usefulness of this instrument. If it works, let's continue, but if they hit the sanctioning countries more, we give advantage to those who suffer them and fuel the war instead of favoring peace”, he reasoned in Rimini.

Salvini's lukewarmness with Russia is no surprise. The far-right was already in the news when it was learned that the Russian embassy in Italy had advanced the money in rubles to pay for his planned trip to Moscow – he wanted to promote a supposed peace plan – which in the end was not carried out due to the many criticisms he received in his country. It has been investigated whether the League received funds from Moscow, the same party that agreed with United Russia and whose leader, who has visited the Russian ambassador several times, was also a great promoter of stopping sending weapons to Kyiv, following the polls. who said that the majority of the Italian population preferred it that way. No one forgets the pictures of him wearing Vladimir Putin shirts when he was his biggest idol.

But the doubts of the leaguer about the sanctions have not been followed by the rest of the members of his coalition. While the number two of Forza Italia, Antonio Tajani, has refused to withdraw them, the leader of Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, is making a great effort to convince the world that Italy will remain in the Atlantic orbit if she comes to power, and he has promised that Rome will not be "the weak point" in the West for Russia. Although she was in opposition, Meloni supported Mario Draghi in all measures against the Kremlin.

The thought of some analysts is that, if the victory of the right is confirmed, the push of the League and perhaps of Forza Italia – we must not forget that Berlusconi always considered Vladimir Putin an “old friend” – could turn Italy into a partner hesitant against Moscow. "Russia is very interested in these elections because it can expect a less convinced government when it comes to breaking the many economic and energy ties between the two countries," explains the researcher at the Institute for International Policy Studies (ISPI) in Milan Eleonora Tafuro. "I do not mean that they will necessarily be pro-Russian, but more pragmatic, more attentive to counteracting the economic effects of the war, and in this sense, more malleable."

The Kremlin has also slipped into the Italian campaign with the declarations of the vice president of the Russian Security Council, Dimitri Medvedev, former prime minister, who already celebrated the fall of Mario Draghi ahead of time. Medvedev has asked Europeans to punish governments at the polls "for their obvious stupidity", in words that have quickly been seen by the center-left, a supporter of the hard line with Putin, as interference to favor the formations that They overthrew the government of the former president of the European Central Bank.

"It is clear that the elections on September 25 will also be about this," warned Enrico Letta, general secretary of the Democratic Party and Meloni's main opponent. In his opinion, Moscow is trying to "change the position of Italian foreign policy, which from the beginning has been very clear with the EU and NATO." Concerns have been heightened after a team of investigators has claimed to have uncovered a Russian undercover spy who spent a decade posing as a Latin American jewelry designer and partying with NATO personnel in Naples.

As stated yesterday by the Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, who visited Ukraine this week, the "attempts at Russian interference are evident." “We have Medvedev who gives voting instructions (...) and Salvini paid in rubles to go to Moscow. A parliamentary commission is needed to investigate the interference, ”he indicated in an interview with La Repubblica. Di Maio, who is running with his own party within the left-wing coalition, warns that if the right wins, Salvini will take Italy "in Putin's arms." "The risk is the separation of historical alliances, isolation and loss of freedom," said the head of diplomacy.

Until Draghi's arrival, all Italian governments had acted in a very practical way with Russia, a country that until this crisis sent more than 40% of the gas that Italy received from abroad. Some 500 Italian companies did business with Moscow and the cultural influence between the two was enormous. The Italian Communist Party (PCI) was, in fact, the most important party outside the Soviet sphere during the cold war. All this changed when Draghi did not shake his pulse when it came to clearly positioning himself on the side of the EU and NATO in this conflict. “Moscow has a great interest because the victory of the forces that may be less hostile would be very well seen there. In addition, Italy is a country of medium importance in Europe, but it could begin a wave of change of position towards Russia on the continent, at a time when the economic situation is going to get very complicated”, considers the professor of Eurasia History at the Ca'Foscari University of Venice, Aldo Ferrari.