As of: 10/01/2022 8:38 p.m
Italy’s likely future Prime Minister Meloni has announced a kind of “Italy First” course. It is about defending national interests. Gazprom surprisingly announced that it would no longer supply gas to Italy.
According to the likely next prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, Italy will in future focus more on its own concerns. The right-wing politician announced this in her first public speech after winning the parliamentary elections almost a week ago.
“Italy must go back to defending its national interests first,” Meloni said in Milan. “That will change in the coming months.” The party leader of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia added that this does not mean a negative attitude towards others, but a positive attitude towards oneself.
Skepticism towards European partners
Meloni thinks that Italy allows itself to be bossed around by European partners and Brussels and does not have equal rights. For example, she referred to the German government’s decision to spend up to €200 billion to help consumers and businesses cope with rising energy prices as a result of the Russian war in Ukraine.
At the same time, however, Berlin refuses to support a European price cap for gas, as requested by Italy and other countries. If her government takes a similar measure, it should not be seen as a populist, nationalist response, but as a strategy to defend national interests, she said.
Meeting with ally Berlusconi
Meloni had himself after the election victory last Sunday not shown publicly for days and claims that she wants to work undisturbed and concentrated on the pressing problems. Only in the next few weeks is she likely to receive a mandate from the President to form a government.
Before today’s performance, Meloni met with her ally Silvio Berlusconi from the Forza Italia party. It is unclear how and to what extent the alliance with the former prime minister will affect Meloni’s course towards Russia. In the past, Berlusconi had repeatedly expressed understanding for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In addition to Forza Italia, Matteo Salvini’s Lega is also in the legal alliance. This week, Italy has been speculating heavily on how ministries will be divided among the three parties. Meloni has not yet given any details on this.
Russia no longer supplies gas to Italy
It is already clear that the new Prime Minister will face a lot of problems when she takes office. Russia has now suspended its gas supplies to Italy for the time being. The Russian company Gazprom has announced that it can no longer deliver gas through Austria, said the Italian supplier Eni. Russian gas normally arrives at, and is distributed from, the Italian-Austrian border town of Tarvisio in Italy.
The Austrian Ministry of Climate Protection and Energy announced in Vienna that Gazprom had not signed the necessary contracts. It is therefore about technical adjustments in the market model, which come into force every October at the beginning of the gas year and must be contractually agreed beforehand. Therefore, the necessary registrations for the transport of Russian gas to Italy were not accepted by the Austrian side, it said.
Gazprom, in turn, blamed Austria for the rejection of the so-called transport nominations in the Telegram news service. “Gazprom is working together with the Italian buyers to solve the problem,” it said.