Populist Voters Don’t Mind Putin’s Help
Matteo Salvini and other populist leaders are learning that Russian “interference” may not be a vote-killer.
Do voters care about his Russia ties?
Photographer: MIGUEL MEDINA/AFPItalian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the nationalist-populist League party, is having a hard time waving off accusations that one of his close aides plotted to get Kremlin funding for the political force. It should be clear by now that such aid is readily available to European populist parties. If voters don’t see it as a deterrent – and so far they don’t – then it’s only going to become more brazen.
The first report of a Moscow meeting between Gianluca Savoini, Salvini’s former spokesman, and some Russians with high-level government contacts appeared in the Italian magazine L’Espresso in February. At the meeting, an oil deal was supposedly discussed: The Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft would sell some Russian diesel fuel to an Italian intermediary at a discount; the intermediary would then sell it on to Italy’s Eni SpA and use the profit to fund the League.