Not one Italian soldier will ever die
in the name of French President Emmanuel Macron, Deputy Premier,
Transport Minister and rightwing League party leader Matteo
Salvini said after the French leader told Friday's Economist
that Weestern ground troops in Ukraine cannot be ruled out if
Moscow breaks through the front lines and Kyiv makes a formal
request for NATO boots on the ground.
"Never one Italian soldier to die in Macron's name, that's what
I think" Salvini said on social media about the Economist
interview.
MEP Sandro Gozi, secretary general of the European Democratic
Party and member of Macron's Renaissance party's Team Europe for
the upcoming European elections, said that "the first immediate
response to the French president's words did not come from the
official spokesperson of the Russian foreign ministry, Maria
Zakharova, but from the real Kremlin spokesman in Europe, Matteo
Salvini."
Gozi, a former bigwig in the centre-left Democratic Party (PD),
said "it's not actually a surprise, because Salvini has always
been very clear on Putin and the Ukraine war.
"No strategic ambiguity: he has chosen what side to be on, that
of Putin and Russia obviously"," said Gozi, posting a famous
photo of Salvini in Red Square wearing a t-shirt with Putin's
face on it.
Salvini has in the past stated his admiration of the Russian
president, saying he is "worth two Mattarellas", the Italian
president, Sergio Mattarella, but has condemned the Russina
invasion while calling on Kyiv to negotiate more recently.
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