“It’s the paradox of security”: instead of promoting peace, the European Commission’s ‘ReArm Europe’ programme (see EUROPE 13594/3) is an arms race, according to the president of the 5-Star Movement, Giuseppe Conte.
The former Italian Prime Minister (2018-2021) and current Member of the Italian Parliament travelled to Strasbourg on Tuesday 11 March to oppose the European Commission’s proposal. The Italian leader immortalised his position by taking a photo with a few dozen MEPs, mainly from The Left Group , outside the European Parliament hemicycle.
Among them, Agence Europe spotted the Italian MEPs of the 5-Star Movement, but also Joao Oliveira (The Left, Portuguese), Sebastian Everding (The Left, German), Estrella Galán (The Left, Spanish) and Rudi Kennes (The Left, Belgian).
Giuseppe Conte also came to protest against the European Commission’s decision to invoke Article 122 of the Treaty on European Union. This emergency measure makes it possible to bypass the European Parliament. “This technical choice is a political one”, stressed the Italian.
“The security architecture is built through mediation, through peace negotiations”, declared Giuseppe Conte, insisting that the European Union must give priority to dialogue and sit down at the negotiating table in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The 5-Star Movement “condemned the Russian war of aggression” and was “in favour of providing material aid to Ukraine to prevent the Russian invasion” at the start of the war. But the situation has changed and it is now a question of “putting an end to this conflict”, according to him.
Spending more than €800 billion on European defence, as proposed by the Commission, is unthinkable in the eyes of the Italian, who advocates “a social economy focused on health, investment in health, schools, education, social spending and human capital”.
Is Italy too indebted? “In a country like Italy, which has a high level of public debt and is emerging from extraordinary crises - energy, war, the cost of living” - investing in rearmament is “insane”.
The Italian leader did not question the threshold for a Member State’s military spending set at 2% of GDP, but said that this was a “ guideline”, that “each country must act according to its financial framework” and that Donald Trump’s call to increase it to 5% should be rejected. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)