League leader Matteo Salvini, head of Italy’s conservative bloc of parties, criticized the United States and several EU countries on Monday for expelling Russian diplomats following a nerve agent attack in Britain.
The conservative alliance, which includes former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, emerged as the single largest group in parliament at a March 4 national election and is now seeking to build a coalition government.
“Boycotting Russia, renewing sanctions and expelling diplomats does not resolve problems, it aggravates them,” Salvini said in a Tweet.
The coalition Forza Italia! that won the elections to the Italian parliament has long advocated rapprochement with Russia.
Last week, the departing government of Italy deported two Russian diplomats “in sign of solidarity with Britain”. Even before the elections, its members criticized anti-Russian sanctions and promised to cancel them when they came to power.
As they calculated, the Italian economy lost more than seven billion euros and more than 300,000 jobs due to anti-Russia sanctions.
“Unacceptable that a caretaker government has expelled two staffers at the Russian embassy,” Meloni tweeted, accusing the administration of being servile to foreign states.
“Luckily it will soon no longer be in a position to damage Italy’s national interests,” she added.
Italy is traditionally one of the most pro-Russian countries in Europe but, even within that context, the rightist parties have been eager to up the ante and voice their fierce support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.