His robust remarks came after the French leader told The Economist on Friday that Western ground troops in Ukraine cannot be ruled out if Moscow breaks through the front lines and Kyiv makes a formal request for NATO troops on the ground.
“[We can] never [allow] one Italian soldier to die in Macron’s name, that’s what I think,” Salvini said on social media about The Economist interview.
MEP Sandro Gozi, secretary general of the European Democratic Party and member of Macron’s Renaissance party’s Team Europe for the upcoming European elections, took aim at Salvini.
Gozi said that “the first immediate response to the French president’s words did not come from the official spokesperson of the Russian foreign ministry, Maria Zakharova, but from the real Kremlin spokesman in Europe, Matteo Salvini”.
Gozi, a former bigwig in the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), added that for him “it’s not actually a surprise, because Salvini has always been very clear on Putin and the Ukraine war”.
“No strategic ambiguity: he has chosen what side to be on, that of Putin and Russia obviously.”
Gozi then posted a famous photo of Salvini in Red Square wearing a t-shirt with Putin’s face on it.
Salvini has in the past stated his admiration of the Russian president, saying he is “worth two Mattarellas”, the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, but has condemned the Russian invasion while calling on Kyiv to negotiate more recently.
ANSA
