Italian politics mourns Navalny after Salvini’s Lega first refused to point fingers

Italy’s political parties will participate in a procession in memory of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who was reported dead on Saturday, though Matteo Salvini’s Lega, known for its pro-Putin tendencies, first responded to the news by saying it did not want to “point any fingers”.

Italy’s majority and opposition parties and the trade unions Cgil, Cisl and Uil will join the torchlight procession in memory of Alexei Navalny launched by Azione (Renew), which will take place in Rome on Monday at 6:30 pm.

“It is opportune that pro-European and democratic political forces promote a joint initiative on Monday afternoon in Rome at the resumption of parliamentary work,” Carlo Calenda, leader of Azione, posted on social media on Sunday afternoon, with Democratic Party Secretary Elly Schlein also commenting.

“We are there. To oppose a regime that kills dissent and freedom, in solidarity with those in Russia today who are arrested for opposing Putin and protesting Navalny’s death,” Schlein said.

Former prime minister Giuseppe Conte’s 5-Star Movement will also send a delegation, while the Greens and the Left Alliance and Matteo Renzi’s Italia Viva (Renew) have announced their participation.

“Calenda woke up a day late, but we will be there”, announced Raffaella Paita, coordinator of Italia Viva, which, together with Più Europa, went to the Russian embassy on Saturday to pay tribute to Navalny.

The initiative called for Calenda will also have government parties attending – with attendants including Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (ECR), Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani’s Forza Italia (EPP) and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s Lega (ID).

But Lega Deputy Secretary Andrea Crippa hesitated to cite Putin as the instigator of Navalny’s death.

“We express our condolences but are waiting for the light to shine. We are not pointing fingers until there is objective evidence. Pointing fingers seems to me premature and inappropriate,” Crippa said after the news about Navalny broke out, adding that the Democratic Party had a “vigilante mentality”.

“If he was fine two days ago, it means that the conditions of imprisonment made him fine (…) If the conditions of imprisonment in Russia were bad, he should not have been fine two days ago unless the conditions had changed in those two days. I don’t know,” Crippa added, referring to Navalny.

So when Salvini announced that Lega was participating in Monday’s initiative, the opposition hit back with criticism.

Salvini and his party are known for their pro-Putin rhetoric, even though Salvini has condemned the war since it started almost two years ago. In April last year, prosecutors dropped their investigation of Italian lobbyists who allegedly sought Russian funding for his party.

“I remember very well when you called Navalny’s arrest a ‘media fabrication’ (…) that he was only a leader worth ‘3%’. When you ‘laughed’ when someone called Putin a dictator when you wanted to exchange two Mattarellas for half a Putin. And we remember very well the close relations between your party and United Russia,” Magi said, addressing Lega’s leader directly.

(Federica Pascale | Euractiv.it)