Too many pro-Chinese and pro-Russian in the next European Parliament?
Faced with the new threats coming from Russia, Iran and China and the complicity of European parties such as the German AfD, the response can only be political and not repressive. Marco Mayer's speech
The Putinian neo-Nazis of Alternative fur Deutschland, together with the pro-Russian and pro-Chinese parties of the Hungarian Orban (Fidesz) and the Slovakian Fico (SMER), could be part of a new right-wing majority in the Strasbourg Parliament. The risk exists and it is up to Italian politics to become fully aware of it in view of the electoral campaign for the European elections.
THE PRO-CHINESE AND PRO-RUSSIAN RISK IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
The risk that the AfD "barbarians" who sit in the European Parliament in the same group (Identity & Democracy) as Salvini's League could join a conservative coalition is confirmed by the results of the most recent polls.
The latest news also confirms the alarm I reported last July regarding contacts between Alternative fur Deutschland and the Kremlin. The mainstream media did not adequately cover the matter and Italian public opinion was not informed of the possibility of a center-right expanded to AfD and which would consequently favor the interests of the Russian Federation in Europe.
The action of AfD and some other I&D parties is supported with increasing pace by Moscow's influence campaigns; a widespread disinformation activity that also seems to appear in the Corriere della Sera with the interview with Eugeny Minchenko, certainly not an independent intellectual but president and CEO of a well-known public relations and lobbying company – Communication Group Minchenko GR-Consulting – who works for the Kremlin.
THE ROLE OF SALVINI
The underestimation of the danger represented by the links between the sovereignist right and Putin's circles involves both the far right and the far left in Italy. As regards the right-wing side, it must first of all take into account that the existing League-United Russia agreement of 2017 casts a shadow on the government's foreign policy.
From this point of view, many analysts have forgotten that since July 2018, with the blockade of the Irish military ship Samuel Beckett , Matteo Salvini at the Viminale has effectively dismantled the EU military mission "Sofia" which had a significant intelligence function and to combat organized crime , with Europol agents on board and important links to NATO's “SEA Guardian” operation. Beyond his own intentions, Matteo Salvini – with the complicity of Giuseppe Conte and against the opinion of the Foreign and Defense ministers of the time – triggered a perverse spiral that paralyzed the EU's military presence in the Mediterranean, to the advantage of the Russian fleet.
EVEN THE LEFT (NOT JUST D'ALEMA) WINKS THE EYE TO RUSSIA AND CHINA
A very similar attitude exists on the left, where leading figures have not yet taken on a lenient attitude towards the Kremlin as well as openly pro-Chinese positions . Although in the last five years the policies of Russia, Iran and China have undergone a worrying involution (increasingly repressive in domestic politics and characterized by great aggressiveness in foreign policy), numerous political leaders, intellectuals and commentators of the far left and of the M5Stelle have continued to act as if nothing had happened.
I find it disconcerting that personalities such as Massimo D'Alema, Michele Santoro, Beppe Grillo, Oliviero Diliberto, Giuseppe Conte, etc. have effectively ignored the dramatic political significance of the deaths of Alexey Navalny, Masha Amini and the Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, to name the three cases that paradigmatically describe the totalitarian drift of the regimes led by Putin, Khamenei and Xi Jinping.
I am at a loss to consider whether these political behaviors have negative implications for the national security of our country. Fortunately, in Italy it is not possible to answer this question. We live in a free country in which – contrary to what happens in Putin's despotic Russia or in similar dictatorial regimes – the law prohibits, in fact, the secret services from poking their noses into political parties, trade unions, the media and last but not least in Parliament.
Faced with the new threats coming from Russia, Iran and China and the complicity of European parties such as the German AfD, the response can rightly only be political and not repressive.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/rischio-partiti-filorussi-filocinesi-maggioranza-parlamento-europeo/ on Wed, 27 Mar 2024 07:50:46 +0000.