Antonio Tajani defines the danger of Moscow's influence on the vote as "consistent", and the issue is one of those followed carefully at Palazzo Chigi. For Matteo Salvini, however, nothing justifies "anti-Russian anxiety", or "the obsession with the Russians in every field" as they say from the League. And Maurizio Lupi invites us to "not dramatize" because "ours is a solid democracy", while underlining the need to invest in cybersecurity. The government continues to take different positions on the issue of protecting electoral processes from foreign interference, while the Democratic Party goes on the attack on the case of the Italian visa granted in Belarus to an alleged perpetrator of the attack in Leipzig, announcing an urgent question to the Foreign Minister.
"We will see together with the other European countries what to do - says Tajani -. We certainly need to prevent infiltration between people who have what it takes to obtain a visa, but then don't have what it takes to be good". The EU is preparing "restrictive measures" to further limit visas for Russians, which have fallen from 4 million before the war to 618 thousand. These are infiltrations that can be intertwined with disinformation operations. "The issue of protecting the electoral process concerns not only Italy but all the countries voting in 2026 and 2027", clarifies Vittorio Rizzi, general director of Dis, the top intelligence agency, explaining that "a series of measures have been put in place, following the same indication from Copasir, to protect the freedom of the democratic voting process". Deputies and senators of the Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic have discussed the dossier several times.
The 007s have long outlined a picture of Russian (but also Chinese) political interference, with disinformation campaigns, cyber attacks and support for extremist groups, also exploiting generative AI to discredit European leadership and institutions. Dangers, according to reports, against which the first barrier are blockchain and digital verification technologies (as well as the digital literacy of the population) and which push all the institutional actors involved to consider investments in cybersecurity essential.
The issue concerns not only Italy, but in Italy there is certainly more than one party with pro-Russian theses. At the top levels of the government there is maximum attention. It is a topic, the reasoning goes in circles close to Palazzo Chigi, which will be addressed in ever greater depth in the coming months. While Lega sources underline that "it is a duty to monitor against any foreign interference, wherever it comes from, from Putin to Zelensky via Soros, but without disrespecting the intelligence of the Italians, who have always chosen and voted with their own heads".
In recent months Giorgia Meloni has spoken of Kremlin propaganda "still very strong in Italy too", but addresses the more complex geopolitical dossier by confirming support for Ukraine and for some time supporting the need to keep channels open with Russia. This has been the line of Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever for some time, who is expected in Rome at the beginning of the week: a meeting could enter the prime minister's agenda, who at the moment does not plan to participate in the UN General Assembly in September.
Already on the eve of the 2022 elections, Meloni raised the problem of Russian influences, and the need to know "whether the choices that some make are convinced or in some way influenced by some interest". Four years later, at the start of a long electoral campaign, some of his followers made similar arguments about Roberto Vannacci. And the leader of National Future, who considers himself "the natural interlocutor of the center-right alliance", continues to sarcastically reject the title of "Moscow's Trojan Horse" used for him by the Financial Times. "Mama them Russians. Big headlines about the possible and potential Russian influences on the Italian elections but, coincidentally - he claims -, no one is worried about the current, and already present, influences on the Italian elections by the Financial Times and by many other newspapers manipulated by international finance and strong powers".
