Carlantonio Solimene May 09, 2022
The secretary of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta, also has doubts about the military escalation in Ukraine. And Mario Draghi is downright “disheartened” on the eve of his departure for Washington. Because the three main forces of their majority M5, Lega and indeed Pd, have raised more than a few concerns about the direction Joe Biden has given the crisis in Eastern Europe. And the Italian head of government, unlike France’s Emmanuel Macron, has done or said nothing to distance himself from the bulky American ally.
Draghi’s first US mission as prime minister promises to be tricky. Because before him there will be a Joe Biden who will urge Italy not to give in to the new needs that have arisen in the theater of war. “We have to adapt to the pace of the war,” the US administration has been repeating for weeks. And this has a precise meaning: Ukraine’s resistance is no longer enough, the goal has become the weakening (and sacking?) of Putin.
Consequently, we need sanctions and, above all, other weapons. In return, the US could put something on its plate that Italy now uses as bread: more liquid gas to ward off the austerity nightmare in the event of a power outage from Moscow. The point is that military escalation is a commitment Draghi could theoretically not make. Because behind it stands an unruly majority.
We know all about the contrast of the 5 stars. As well as the helplessness of the chairman of the Lega Matteo Salvini. But as long as only the yellow-green made the noise, it was easy for the more Atlantic-minded politicians to dismiss everything from a frantic search for consensus or the previous closeness to Putin.
Now that objections are being voiced by the Democratic Party, the question changes significantly. Yesterday the Republic anticipated some passages of the intervention that Enrico Letta would have given in the training center of the Democratic Party. “Nobody wants a military escalation – his words – and nobody ever thought of sending weapons to Kyiv as a tool of attack and aggression on Russian territory.” And again: “The goal remains to reach an immediate ceasefire and negotiations”.
By coincidence (?), Corriere della Serapublicasse did an interview on the same day with Carlo De Benedetti, who remains a tutelary deity for part of the Dem world. Well, the engineer used tones on the war that made even Giuseppe Conte appear as a warmonger: «The interests of the USA and the United Kingdom on the one hand and Europe and especially Italy on the other are absolutely divergent. If Biden wants to wage war against Russia via Ukraine, that’s his business. We cannot and must not follow him».
And on the arms shipment: “I am opposed to Biden approving a $33 billion aid package in Congress, of which $20 billion: an enormous sum for a country like Ukraine. This means that the United States is preparing for a long, even year-long war. It would be a disaster for us.” A position that obviously cannot be the same as Letta. But which, in a way, helps smooth out that of the secretary. And throws the ball back into Draghi’s court: would it be right if the prime minister made promises that the vast majority of his supporters don’t want to make? “I hope that Draghi’s American mission will bring Biden to a calmer and more moderate tone,” Matteo Salvini said. But to think that the prime minister is going to Washington to “correct” White House policy seems ambitious. It would be a lot not to suffer.