France’s increasingly hardline rhetoric about the war in Ukraine prompted a backlash from Italian Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the right-wing Lega party, Matteo Salvini, on Monday when the Italian told the French president to personally take up arms and head to the Ukrainian front.
The on-stage remarks were made by Salvini speaking at a campaign rally in the southern Italian city of Bari. The Lega leader said Macron should “put on a helmet, put on the vest, and go to Ukraine” and for Paris to not ‘piss off the Italians’ referring to Italy’s less confrontational approach to the Russian invasion.
Salvini was responding to France’s position on the war, which has seen Macron take a hardline stance against Russian aggression, including not ruling out sending troops.
Macron courted criticism even among NATO allies in recent months for considering deploying French military personnel in Ukraine, as both President Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz backed the use of American-made missiles to be used by Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia.
“The choice for Lega is a choice for peace. I don’t want the sons of Bari, the sons of Italy, to be sent to die and fight in Ukraine, and I don’t want Italian weapons to go bombing and killing in Russia. Italy is not at war with anyone,” Salvini added.
Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani ruled out the possibility of deploying Italian troops to Ukraine only last week, clarifying that Rome was “defending Ukraine” and “not fighting against Russia.”
