Tarquinio: disband NATO. Frost in the PD, Renzi and Calenda on the attack

'Let us disband NATO'. The words of Marco Tarquinio, former editor of Avvenire and PD candidate for the European elections in the Centre constituency, became a case. Matteo Renzi and Carlo Calenda immediately mounted the controversy, but there was also frost among the Dems. The election campaign silences internal discontent, but the comments circulating in the reformist area are cutting. From the Dem senator Filippo Sensi an implicit reply via social media where he posts a photo of a T-shirt with the words: 'Ukraine in NATO, now'. And again: 'Political manifesto'. More direct Carlo Calenda who calls Secretary Elly Schlein into question: 'Tarquinio, besides thinking that abortion is like the death penalty, wants to disband NATO. What does the PD think about this? Is that your line, Elly Schlein? Do you really want to send these ideas to the EU?".

The leader of Azione this time finds himself paired with Matteo Renzi and all Iv who in battery attacks the Pd: 'The Pd with Marco Tarquinio - writes the leader of Italia Viva - says that to build peace NATO must be dissolved, disavowing the Atlanticism of the last 70 years. We instead say that to build peace we need NATO, the European Army, common defence and a foreign policy. In short, we need the United States of Europe, not this Pd'.

Tarquinio, a Catholic and pacifist, puts it this way: 'If alliances do not serve peace and from being defensive they become offensive, they must be dissolved. Let's dissolve NATO. It cannot be done in a day, but it must be done. A new and equal alliance between Europe and America must be built'. And then on TV, as a guest on Tagadà on La7, he broadened his reflection to the Middle East: "In Ukraine, the old 'collateral damage' we started to call crimes against humanity. Perhaps we should use the same lexicon for all wars,' he stresses with regard to the latest massacre in Rafah. He adds: 'If alliances serve to perpetuate war, then it is better to dissolve them. Dissolve those with Israel to stop the war and maybe, for what concerns us, dissolve NATO in Europe'.

To calm tempers in the party and prevent the outbreak of an internal controversy on the eve of the elections, the person in charge of foreign affairs Peppe Provenzano immediately intervened, making it clear: 'As is well known, Marco Tarquinio is an independent candidate, the positions on foreign and security policy of the PD are expressed by the PD. And they are clear and well known. We have reiterated them in the programme for the European elections and, to those who want to instrumentalise, I would remind them that the issue of NATO was resolved by the Italian left with Berlinguer in the 1970s'. And again: 'We are for a European strategic autonomy, which is expressed within international alliances and by strengthening multilateral institutions,' he says. 'Today, this means supporting Ukraine, and working for a just peace and not escalation. It also means having a leading role in the Middle East, to stop the fire, to respect international legality and to preserve the solution of two peoples, two states, with the recognition of the State of Palestine'.