THEincrease in military spending, agreed internationally even before the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine, is dividing the government majority by the Fibrillation of the Five Stars, who would like to postpone the increase in defense spending to 2% of GDP despite having significantly increased it when they were at Palazzo Chigi. But the premier Mario Draghi has no intention of giving up to the rounds of waltzes proposed by the grillini and yesterday he said it without too many words to the leader of the M5S Giuseppe Conte before going up to the Quirinale.
Draghi does not give in to Conte: "International commitments on military spending do not touch each other"
In the face to face with Conte, Mario Draghi did not retreat an inch and told the former prime minister: "The Government intends to respect and reaffirm the commitments on military spending undertaken at international level: in such a delicate moment”, with war on Europe's doorstep, “it is impossible to question them and it is not serious to do so”. On the contrary – was Draghi's peremptory conclusion – “if this were to happen, the pact that holds the majority” of the government would collapse.
Of all this Draghi has immediately reported to the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who is in full agreement with the premier. Renegade international agreements on military spending – curiously signed at the time also by Giuseppe Conte when he was at the helm of the first two governments of the legislature – it would mean, beyond the merit made even more topical by the war, undermine Italy's international credibility and this is why both Draghi and Mattarella do not intend to endorse yielding.
When he was at Palazzo Chigi, the count increased military spending by 17%
It is probable that in the Senate, to support the rise in military spending up to 2% of GDP, which will then be codified by the imminent Def, the Government resorted to the confidence in the measure under discussion and it will be up to the Five Stars to decide whether to support the Draghi line or provoke it the crisis in the middle of a war. But the Five Stars themselves are divided internally and while Conte, to strengthen his weak leadership, makes a hard face, on the contrary the Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio is fully aligned with Draghi and has not the slightest intention of causing shocks in the Government.
To make Conte's position even more surreal, there are also the figures that contradict what he is claiming these days. Not only was the progressive increase in military spending agreed internationally and approved by all the Italian governments that have followed one another from 2014 onwards, but in the three-year period 2018-2020, when Conte was Prime Minister, defense investments rose from 21 billion to 24,6 billion, an increase of 17%. Between 2021 and 2022 – with Draghi at Palazzo Chigi – the defense budget increased slightly (+5,6%), reaching 26 billion euros.
"I do not question the commitments with NATO, nor do I want the Government to do so", Conte defends himself, "but if we increase defense spending, where will the money be found to meet the high bills, the scarcity of raw materials and the inflationary pressure?”. Legitimate questions, which Conte didn't even remotely ask himself when he increased military spending at Palazzo Chigi, despite the war not being in sight.
