Crosetto-Tajani: Italy hits 2% of GDP for Nato. The opposition: "Did we get there overnight?"

There is a clash between the government and the opposition over the 2% of GDP threshold to be allocated to defence. On the one hand, Crosetto and Tajani claim that Italy has reached this target (starting from 1.57%); on the other, the oppositions ask where the additional resources have been found. "What we pledged to do we have done," assured Crosetto. And again: 'We have achieved the result and it is already an important thing. "We know very well that this is a starting point," the Defence chief added on the sidelines of the ceremony for the change at the helm of the Air Force. Our objective is not to achieve a numerical result but to have the capabilities that NATO is asking us to give to the Alliance and to have the capacity to secure and defend this country'.

On the same line as Crosetto, Tajani. "Italy has reached 2% of GDP for spending on defence and security," the foreign minister confirmed at the NATO informal ministerial in Antalya, Turkey. "The document is already on Rutte's (Nato's secretary general, ed.) table," the minister explained on his arrival at the meeting, stressing that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will officially announce this result during the Hague summit scheduled for 24-26 June.

Doubts and perplexity on the part of the oppositions, who speak of imbroglios and accounting tricks. "There has not been a parliamentary session, an interview in the newspapers or on TV, in which the minister of defence, Guido Crosetto, has not launched appeals to Parliament to reach the investment of 2% of GDP to be allocated to defence". This is what Davide Faraone, vice-president of Italia Viva, wrote on social media. "He had even argued with his colleague in government, Minister Giorgetti, so that the result would be achieved. Today we wake up, and without any economic manoeuvre, without any measure, we read a statement by Crosetto himself: "2% for defence achieved, what we had committed to do we have done!" He was better than the Divine Otelma: 10 billion, to go from 1.57% of GDP to 2%, found overnight. Like the thieves of Pisa. And we worried wondering what cuts were needed. But no, all it takes is a few accounting tricks: include in the defence account the pensions of the military, civil defence, private security, urban police, lead soldiers, PlayStation war games, and NATO is satisfied. There's nothing to be done, it's increasingly the government of cheaters,' Faraone concluded.

Pressing also from the Five Stars. "We are asking for an urgent, indeed very urgent report from Minister Crosetto or Minister Tajani, because from their announcements we have discovered that overnight Italy has reached 2% of GDP for military spending," said M5S deputy Francesco Silvestri, speaking in the Chamber. 'Overnight, that is, last Thursday we were at 1.5 and now we are at 2,' he added. Given that the integrated defence budget in the last financial law was less than 35 billion and that 2 per cent of GDP is instead 45 billion, Italians would like to know where Minister Harry Crosetto Potter found in one night 10 billion to invest in military spending, while outside there is a country obsessed with the problems of health care, high bills and the cost of living". "Since Minister Tajani has also added that the document attesting to this result has already been sent to NATO Secretary General Rutte, can you also send it to us humble parliamentarians? We want to understand whether you have played a three-card game or have gone to rob some state funds useful to citizens,' Silvestri concluded.

In the last hours Rutte explained: 'Today we have discussed in depth some of the key issues for the Hague summit, including increasing defence spending, which is a key issue, will be one of the key outcomes of the summit. There has to be a credible path to the goals we will agree on in The Hague, both on classical defence and on security in general'. According to Alliance sources, the secretary will call for a gradual increase in the level of defence spending up to 5 per cent of GDP by 2032, with increases on two levels: 3.5 per cent for defence in the strict sense, based on the criteria currently envisaged by NATO and in line with the capability targets that will be set in June, and 1.5 per cent in security spending, the criteria for which will instead have to be negotiated. The Italian government would be in favour of a discussion on this point. According to Tajani, it would be 'fairer' to allocate 3% to defence and 2% to security.