“It is my duty to do everything to try to make a contribution to achieving a just peace, using the strongest weapon: diplomacy”: Lega leader Matteo Salvini – in an interview with the press – confirmed the his intention to go to Moscow in the next few days. A news leaked in the aftermath of the Draghi-Putin meeting that the party circles had immediately downsized by speaking of “working hypotheses”.
An initiative that, although it has not yet been formalized, has been received coldly in government circles. It is no coincidence that Salvini specified: should the trip materialize, he adds, “I will take all the necessary steps and first of all I will talk about it with President Mario Draghi”. Then a further clarification: “You go if you need to, there are no certainties,” he says to Sabato Anch’io on Rai Radio Uno. «I do not comment on even quite improbable travel hypotheses. So I don’t make any comments, ”says the Minister of Defense, Lorenzo Guerini.
“I’m doing it all”
During an electoral meeting in Como, the former Minister of the Interior made it clear that his attempt to meet Putin is very serious: «Draghi did well to call Putin and I am doing my best. But I already hear the refrains of the left because if he says someone who is good for politically correct is going to Moscow, then it is a great peace operation. If Salvini goes, who knows what happens, but we have broad shoulders and we just have to keep going ».
The unfortunate precedent
If this mission were to go through – a few days before the administrative offices – it would be the second diplomatic initiative after the unfortunate one of 8 March. On that occasion Salvini was challenged at the Przemyśl station, the Polish town about ten kilometers on the border with Ukraine, by the mayor of the city Wojciech Bakun who first thanked Italy, then, in front of the cameras, he showed a shirt with the face of Putin. And turning to Salvini he said: “I don’t receive it, come with me to the border to condemn him.” For some time the “Captain” has been repeating that he would be ready to go “even on foot” to Moscow, as to Istanbul, in order to plead the cause of peace and dialogue.
With regard to a mission to the Russian capital, the Northern League leader had been at the center of a journalistic controversy last month, after some media outlets had said that his departure was imminent. An initiative that he himself flatly denied, stating that he had never even asked for a visa and “did not even know” where his passport was. But this time the picture seems to be very different.