“I was one of the few Italian politicians who believed in [Donal Trump’s] victory and rooted for him four years ago. And I keep believing that he has been a good president and I hope he will be re-elected.” Thus spoke Matteo Salvini, head of the League, in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal.
The 47-year-old has been compared to president Trump in the past, as the two share a number of similarities, from their conservative “God, homeland, family” baseline to their hard line on immigration.
During this interview, Mr Salvini stressed further similarities in their foreign policy approach, mentioning that “[o]n some international issues […] we have the exact same opinion.” He said that he would suspend Italian relations with China and Iran, and make sure to move the Italian embassy to Jerusalem – one of Mr Trump’s foreign policy milestones.
However, the League’s leader is not in the position to push for these goals from the opposition desks. Italy is not due for a government change until 2023. But despite this, he campaigns relentlessly, trusting that the current government coalition – which “doesn’t agree on anything” according to him – will soon be “blow[n] up” by the Italian society itself.
Mr Salvini is currently leading Italy’s most popular party, although he has been slipping steadily in polls since his past atmospheric heights. Nonetheless, his right-wing coalition (with Giorgia Meloni’s conservative Brothers of Italy and Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia) is the highest polling political entity in the country – and if Italy were to vote today, their victory would be almost inevitable.
The fact that the leader reposted the Journal interview to his Facebook page under the title “Economy, international relations, immigration: here’s what I would do as prime minister,” goes to show that his performance was intended for internal use, too, other than casting his image abroad as Italy’s next leader.
But there is one glaring divergence between Mr Salvini, who calls himself an Atlanticist, and the US international policy stance: Russia. He has, time and again, spent kind words on Russian president Vladimir Putin and supported strengthening ties with Moscow. But although Mr Trump himself is famously not hard on the Kremlin, both sides of the Washington political establishment are – and quite strongly, at that.
When the Journal’s interviewer Adam O’Neal asked Mr Salvini about his ties with Russia – which allegedly involve illicit funding to his party, although that’s still being investigated –, he argued that it was in Italy’s (and Europe’s) interest to keep a closer relationship, or else, Russia would simply look East, and get closer to China. That, and cheaper energy deals.
He then pointed at Turkey, member of NATO and candidate to the EU, arguing that many of the authoritarian practices attributed to Mr Putin are underway there, too. Therefore, despite acknowledging Moscow’s imperfect form of democracy and corruption, he thinks it’s best to engage with Russia the same way Europe does with Turkey, as “Erdogan does not look more peaceful and democratic than Putin.”
On Thursday, the League’s MEPs voted against a European resolution to institute an investigation into the poisoning of Russia opposer Alexei Navalny, something US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called for, too. They also abstained from voting on another resolution that levied sanctions against the contested Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.
Both resolutions passed, highlighting the distance between the League and Brussels, as well as the other main Italian parties.
“It’s not a coincidence. These are the same positions expressed by other sovereigntist and populist parties in Europe. They claim that it’s too soon to jump to conclusions and for an international investigation, some even go as far as formulating conspiracy theories on Anglo-American evidence manipulation,” told us Andrew Weiss, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
