As prime minister of Italy, Matteo Salvini could choose to undercut the NATO alliance by realigning towards Russia. The United States should make clear that were Salvini to take office and do so, we would alter our relationship with Italy.
This is a newly relevant concern on Tuesday following Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s resignation.
Lambasting his coalition partner, Conte accused Salvini of putting his own interests before the nation. Conte’s resignation means that new elections will be held unless the center-left and populist Five Star movement can form a new governing coalition. It is likely that they will be able to do so. But if they fail, Salvini — whose Lega Nord party has more than doubled in popularity since the last election — will be front-runner to become the next prime minister.
From an Italian perspective, that’s fine. Salvini’s anti-immigration attitudes enrage the European Union political establishment. But his political popularity attests to something that the EU should have figured out long ago — namely, that uncontrolled immigration has alienated vast segments of the Italian population. Those voters live in a democracy, they want change, and Salvini is offering it. America must accept this.
But we cannot accept Salvini’s expectation of American support alongside his intimate relationship with Russia.
After China, Vladimir Putin’s Russia is America’s foremost adversary. Italy is a NATO member that supposedly stands alongside us in defending western democracy and the European continent. Italy provides basing to around 13,000 U.S. military personnel. But a Salvini government would risk all that. Considering the example of Austria, where pro-Putin government ministers have endangered U.S. security, there is good reason to believe a Salvini government would endanger the U.S. intelligence secrets and the operational security of our deployed personnel.
Were these concerns to become real, the U.S. should be prepared to pull its forces from Italy and reduce its economic and diplomatic cooperation with the Mediterranean nation. We should be crystal clear in outlining this position now. After all, Salvini’s record speaks for itself.
Salvini opposes EU sanctions on Russia imposed following its annexation of Crimea, and regularly praises Putin. Indeed, he has an overt cooperation agreement with Putin’s United Russia party and numerous reports indicate covert Russian funding for Lega Nord. Salvini is a favorite of Russian propaganda networks and closely aligns himself with Putin’s effort to present globalization as an attack on culture and the nation.
Yes, perhaps Salvini would be a reliable U.S. partner in office. Perhaps he would even strengthen Italy’s commitment to NATO by increasing defense spending towards the alliance to 2% of GDP target (Italy currently spends well short of that). But the evidence so far suggests otherwise.
America must make clear that it respects Italian voters, but will protect its interests.
