Why Italy’s far-right government is divided over Putin

Italy has a new prime minister, said Hannah Roberts on Politico.eu (Brussels) – but for how long? Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition took 44% of the vote in elections last month, putting her firmly on course to become the country’s first female PM.

It was a remarkable feat, the product of close cooperation between her far-right Brothers of Italy party (which won 26%) and her right-wing allies, notably Matteo Salvini’s League party and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (each of which won about 8%). But Berlusconi has now turned out to be “Meloni’s biggest problem”.

Tensions first surfaced during talks over who’d get which jobs in a prospective government, but they burst into the open when the 86-year-old billionaire former leader described Meloni as “bossy, arrogant and offensive”. But worse was to come.

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Leaked recording

In a recording leaked last week, Berlusconi was heard boasting to some in his party that he had recently “rekindled” his friendship with Russia’s President Putin – prompting another ticking off from Meloni, and raising questions about whether the coalition government announced last Friday can endure.

“I have reconnected with President Putin – a little, a lot”, said Berlusconi in the recording. “He sent me 20 bottles of vodka and a really sweet letter for my birthday. I responded with 20 bottles of Lambrusco and a similarly sweet letter.” None of which should surprise us, said Claudio Tito in La Repubblica (Rome). The former prime minister has long been close to Putin, and the Italian Right as a whole is increasingly “polluted by the Kremlin”. Salvini, for example is “constantly recalling his relations with Russia”, and rarely misses a chance to defend Moscow. The new speaker of the Italian parliament, Lorenzo Fontana, is also known for sympathising with Russia.

But the comments by Berlusconi risk doing real harm to our standing abroad. His apparent willingness to blame Ukraine for starting Putin’s war puts us on a “collision course with Washington, Berlin and Paris”, and sends a message to our Nato allies that we cannot be trusted.

Meloni said to be ‘livid’

Meloni’s “far-right credentials and long history of eurosceptic tirades have raised eyebrows in some European capitals”, said Benjamin Dodman on France 24 (Paris). But she has staunchly supported Ukraine’s war effort, offered strong backing to EU sanctions on Russia, and insisted that anyone joining her government must be an opponent of Putin’s war. Unsurprisingly, she was said to be “livid” after hearing the Berlusconi recording, and responded with a statement saying that support for Europe and Nato would be a “cornerstone” of her government.

Berlusconi’s comments are typical of a man who always craves the limelight, said Alessandro Campi in Il Mattino (Naples). But they also betray his weakness. Finding himself in his “advancing years” having to negotiate a role for his party in government from a minority position, he let his vanity and desire for publicity get the better of him. His outburst did not stop Meloni forming a new government for Italy, but we’ll have to wait and see whether it will last any longer than most of the others.