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Written by Piero Messina
Everything’s ready for the 73rd edition of the Sanremo Festival. From 7 to 11 February, Italy stops to listen to songs and songs of the musical festival most loved by Italians. Sanremo is the capital of Italian music and that festival, with an ancient flavor, has contributed to creating the stereotype of the Italian people all devoted to music, mandolin and spaghetti. But the Sanremo Festival, with half of Italians hooked on the small TV screen, is also a media and political appointment. World rock stars but also politicians and opinion leaders were hosted on the stage of the Sanremo festival. Sanremo, therefore, is not just a musical event: it is a very powerful and refined “weapon of mass distraction”.
At this point in the story you should ask yourself: why does Southfront tell this story? The answer is simple. The guest star of the 2023 edition of the Sanremo Festival is Volodymir Zelensky, the president-fighter of Ukraine. Zelensky will be connected from Kiev during the final evening, to ensure maximum audience and share. Certainly, the Ukrainian president was not invited due to his background as a cabaret and soap opera artist. From Sanremo, Zelensky will do nothing but reiterate his military mantra, recalling for the umpteenth time how much the unconditional support offered by Italy is appreciated by his government.
If there wasn’t a war involved, it would be a grotesque and ridiculous story. Zelensky has been a constant presence on talk shows, public political hearings and televised debates in Italy since February last year. Breaking down the barriers of linguistic rigor of diplomacy, the Ukrainian president flaunts privileged relations with the Italian government. When he talks about the Italian premier, he speaks in a confidential tone of his next meetings with “Giorgia”, obviously referring to the head of government Giorgia Meloni. Who will fly to Kiev in the coming weeks.
Zelensky’s show in Sanremo shouldn’t be reduced to a mere “media” episode. The new Italian government is proving to be the most active and loyal of NATO’s partners in pursuing military and logistical support for Kiev.
In recent weeks, Adolfo Urso (Italian government minister) went on a mission to Kiev to meet President Zelensky. With that meeting, which was also attended by the leaders of Confindustria (the association that brings together Italian industries), Italy literally handed over some of the most important assets of national logistics into the hands of Ukraine. Just listen to the words uttered by Urso at the end of the meeting with Zelensky:
“We would like the ports of Trieste and Venice to somehow also become ports of Ukraine and that the Quadrante Europa (the logistics platform of Verona, the largest on the European continent ) become their logistical base”.
The minister referred to the recovery of maritime corridors, in order to guarantee support to Ukraine, but not only. In the background there is also the intention to create the basis for concrete cooperation industrially and commercially between the two countries.
To make this strategy concrete, Zelensky and Urso met in March, in Rome. In those days a conference will be held to discuss the future of Ukraine and its reconstruction.
The position of the Italian government is totally flat on the wishes of Washington and NATO. At the forefront of military supplies to Kiev, Italy is ready to send the sixth package of weapons and ammunition to the Ukrainian army. The first shipments had been defined by Kiev as leftovers from warehouses: old mortars and obsolete systems. Now the Italian government is ready to send the Samp-T anti-aircraft missile systems. Developed starting from the early 2000s as part of the Italian-French FSAF (Family of Surface Air Systems) program, SAMP/T is a medium-range missile system suitable for operating in new operational scenarios, primarily characterized by driving factors such as reduced reaction times against air threats, high mobility and the possibility of adapting the device according to times commensurate with the dynamics of the manoeuvre. They are the perfect weapons for escalating conflict.
Italy’s positioning alongside Ukraine provoked immediate reactions in Moscow. For Russian Foreign Minister Segerj Lavrov, “The speed with which Italy moved not only into the camp of those who joined the sanctions, but into the camp of the leaders of the anti-Russian front, at least under the previous government, is was somewhat surprising to us.” The Russian diplomat reiterated the concept of how the European Union has “lost its independence”, becoming an “attribute” of the Atlantic Alliance. “Colonialism – he continued – is when one takes possession of someone and lives off him. It is possible to subject all the plans and structures of another country” and this is what “the United States and the European Union are doing”. Italy, according to Lavrov, is undergoing a propaganda masterclass. And the Sanremo Festival, with the presence of Zelensky, will be the perfect soundtrack.
