A direct threat from Italy to NATO and the EU – A strange move challenges Donald Trump’s goal

The third largest EU and euro country, NATO member Italy is having a hard time with the defense alliance’s new spending target. According to Italian media reports Giorgia Melonin the government threatens to make NATO’s defense spending target a condition for putting the EU’s debt discipline on hold.

The matter came up in the Senate, the upper house of Italy’s parliament, this week when it discussed the government’s initiatives related to Italy’s energy security. Inside Meloni’s board was of La Stampa magazine according to information, a proposal was already prepared to ignore NATO’s new defense spending target, but it was finally withdrawn at the last minute.

According to the withdrawn proposal, Italy would have committed to NATO’s old goal, according to which two percent of the gross national product is spent on defense. The NATO countries agreed last summer that the new target is five percent of gross domestic product.

At the same time, Melon’s government states that its priority is now “finding resources to combat the rise in energy prices”, not increasing defense spending. Italy currently spends 1.5 percent of its GDP on defense.

Italian Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto assessed later during question time in the lower house of the parliament that the five percent goal agreed at the NATO summit does not need to be met immediately. He also predicts that the goal will be reconsidered in the next few years.

Instead, according to Crosetto, money from the EU is needed to combat the energy crisis.

“Europe should activate mechanisms to protect its industry, economy and citizens,” he stated In an interview with Milano Finanza magazine.

Defense spending is a difficult issue for Italy’s sitting government, as the far-right Lega party is strongly opposed to increasing it. Deputy Prime Minister leading Lega Matteo Salvini this week already hinted at the party’s separation from the government if Meloni ends up increasing defense spending now.

At the same time, the United States is putting heavy pressure on Italy in particular. US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker has pissed off Meloni’s government by, among other things, warning that the time of “free travel” in NATO is over.

According to Italian political commentators, the episode seen in the Senate this week is a direct challenge to both NATO and the US president, who has long demanded an increase in defense spending. For Donald Trump. At the same time, Italy is also challenging the EU by demanding that spending used to treat the energy crisis be excluded from debt discipline rules.