The President of Ukraine is expected to attend the famous entertainment event via video link. Many Italians oppose arming Ukraine.
In Italy, politicians from several parties criticize the plan that the president of Ukraine to Volodymyr Zelensky would make a video speech in connection with Italy’s biggest entertainment event, the San Remo Song Festival.
San Remo, which is organized at the beginning of February, is a brilliant event whose broadcasts gather record audiences in front of the television. San Remo has served as a role model for, among others, Eurovision.
– I’m waiting for songs from the Italian song festival, nothing else, said Thursday the Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and the leader of the right-wing La Lega party Matteo Salvini For the La7 television channel, according to the news agency Reuters.
Salvini added that he is not sure “how appropriate” it is to mix entertainment with talk of death and war.
Several other Italian politicians from the extreme left, the populist Five Star Movement and the opposition center-left Democratic Party have also expressed the same type of opinions as Salvini.
– Zelenskyi in San Remo? No, wrote a candidate for the leadership of the Democratic Party on Facebook Gianni Cuperlo.
Zelenskyi, a former actor and comedian, also participated in the film industry’s Golden Globe award gala via video link in January. At that time, he expressed that he was sure of victory in the war and thanked for the support given to Ukraine.
More than half of Italians oppose arming Ukraine
An online address has also been opened in Italy, which opposes inviting Zelenskyi to the festival. The petition had collected around 33,000 signatures by Friday morning.
Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni has been a solid supporter of Ukraine. His government is planning to donate an anti-aircraft system to Ukraine together with France.
However, supporting Ukraine has caused friction in the Italian government coalition, because Salvini and the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has relations with Moscow.
According to opinion polls, the arming of Ukraine divides Italians. According to a survey published by the Italian broadcasting company Rai on Wednesday, 52 percent of respondents were against sending weapons to Ukraine and 39.9 percent supported it.
You can discuss the topic until Saturday 28.1. until 11 p.m.
Source: Reuters