ROME (ITALPRESS) – “Now it is our turn, today it is natural that a feeling of anguish prevails. It was a tragic spectacle: I don’t know whether it was an orchestrated trap that Zelensky fell into, or whether it came like this, but certainly it is something we have never seen. We witnessed the eclipse of the West on live TV.” Thus, in an interview with La Stampa about the White House confrontation, former EU Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said that “Trump acted as if the difference between those who invaded and those who defend themselves was indifferent to him. Indeed, by calling Zelensky a dictator and saying that he has already lost a war that is instead in a terrible and bloody stalemate, he endorses Putin’s views. That alone is huge.” Cutting military aid to Ukraine “would be most serious, but I consider it unlikely. Now it is a matter of working to rebuild what is possible of the relationship between Trump and Zelensky. A lot we Europeans have to do. Ukraine is not alone.” “It is right,” Gentiloni stressed, “to hang on to the transatlantic relationship, and Macron and Starmer have done well in recent days to try to keep alive what can be kept alive. They made this attempt without sacrificing Ukraine. The same should be done by those who envision a similar bridging role for the Italian government, which, however, I do not see as a given. Because the governing coalition has different positions.” As for Premier Giorgia Meloni, “she tries to be in tune with the American far right on identity and ideological issues, without breaking with the Europeans on economic and geopolitical issues. But as divisions deepen, staying in these two tracks becomes impractical.” Therefore, the Prime Minister will also have to choose, “by necessity, difficult for Italy to evade.” On the issue of common defense, according to Gentiloni, “a few extra decimals of spending in short order is not enough: we need common financing that overcomes the resistance to produce in Europe and purchase European defense systems.” Then, he notes, “We are fond of our democracies, our welfare, civil rights, peace. These values must be defended because they are threatened in a world inhabited by tensions and autocracies: Europe cannot remain the only herbivore in a world of carnivores. I have the utmost respect for pacifist or even disarmament positions: but among those with governmental responsibilities no one in Europe is shirking, except Orban. And about the hypothesis of European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine, it is difficult to discuss it in the abstract. And it is not useful to divide between those who are for and those who are against something whose contours are unknown.” And on tariffs, he says, “Europe has nothing to fear but its own divisions. We are working to avoid a trade war: but if Trump inaugurates it, we are no weaker than the Americans. I think the moment should push us in the exact opposite direction of bilateral relations: to seek the strength and unity of Europe.” – Ipa agency photo -(ITALPRESS).
