The far-right leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, had to speak publicly this Thursday about his connections with the Russian embassy in Italyafter the complaints and suspicions that he could be behind the fall of the government led by Mario Draghi a week ago.
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“Russian shadows over the political crisis” in Italy, headlined this Thursday the newspaper La Stampa, close to the industrialists, when addressing the thorny issue.
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The fall of the national unity government headed by Draghi on July 14, after losing the support in parliament of three of his allies, Liga, Forza Italia (moderate right) and the 5 Star Movement (anti-system), has unleashed everything kind of questions.
According to La Stampa, a diplomat from the Russian embassy met at the end of May in Rome with a close collaborator of Matteo Salvinito talk about the political situation.
“The diplomat, who hinted at a possible Russian interest in destabilizing the balance within the Italian government with this operation, asked him if the League ministers would also present their resignation to Draghi’s cabinet,” reports the newspaper, which is based on a “intelligence services document”.
The meeting took place while Salvini was accused of organizing a kind of parallel diplomacy, with meetings at the Russian embassy, apparently to draw up a peace plan between Russia and Ukraine, without ever having informed the Italian government.
The embassy had also facilitated the purchase of plane tickets for Salvini, as well as for other members of the League, in order to travel to Moscow on May 29, a visit that was later canceled.
The Kremlin has denied any interference in Italian politics.
However, many Italian politicians have demanded explanations from Salvini after the La Stampa revelations.
“We want to know if it was (Russian President Vladimir) Putin who overthrew Draghi,” Democratic Party leader Enrico Letta said.
Matteo Salvini for his part responded with irony: “The divided and desperate left (…) is dedicated to looking for fascists, Russians and racists who do not exist,” he said.
“We are pro-European and Atlanticist, but this does not mean that we cannot have good relations with Putin. The war will end sooner or later and those who have made a mistake will pay,” he commented on Radio24.
The Russian embassy has avoided comment.
Links between Salvini and Moscow are often controversial, especially since the Russian invasion of Ukrainewhich may weigh in view of the legislative elections on September 25.
The right-wing coalition, formed by the League, Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, and the far-right Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), appears as the favorite in all the polls.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from AFP
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