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Giorgia Meloni is facing a political storm over the Italian government’s talks with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to provide secure communications, just as Europe is launching its own rival satellite initiative.
Musk on Monday said his company was “ready to provide Italy [with] the most secure and advanced connectivity”. His comments on social media platform X came after the Italian government acknowledged ongoing discussions about using Starlink services for “encrypted data communications”.
The potential deal, reportedly worth up to $1.5bn, has sparked outrage among Italian opposition politicians.
Centrist lawmaker Carlo Calenda, a former industry minister, warned on Tuesday that “contracting Musk for such sensitive services — while he sponsors the European far-right, spreads fake news and enters the internal politics of European states — cannot be an option”.
“It is simply not a solution compatible with national security,” Calenda said.
Elly Schlein, leader of the Democratic party, the largest opposition party, has demanded that Meloni and her ministers appear in parliament to brief lawmakers on the talks with SpaceX.
“If the price we have to pay for Musk’s friendship is $1.5bn to put his satellites into orbit, we won’t accept it,” she said. “Italy won’t sell out.”
Former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi said that “if Musk wants to invest in Italy, he is welcome. If Musk wants Italian taxpayers’ money, Meloni must explain how, why and when.”
Meloni has forged a close personal friendship with the world’s richest man, calling him “brilliant”. Musk has described her as “authentic, honest and thoughtful,” and “even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside”. Her office denied a media report that she discussed the possible Starlink deal with US president-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago last weekend, calling the suggestion “simply ridiculous”.
Deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini dismissed the idea that there was any risk involved in a SpaceX contract, and urged Meloni to hurry to seal a deal.
“Musk is a protagonist of innovation on a global level: a possible agreement with him to guarantee connection and modernity throughout Italy would not be a danger but an opportunity,” Salvini said. “I trust the government will accelerate in this direction.”
Defence minister Guido Crosetto told parliament last year that Rome had no choice but to engage SpaceX, given its existing monopoly on low orbit satellite communications, and said that the potential European alternative would take years to get up and running.
Whatever people’s personal opinions about Musk, Crosetto said, “if you need to have low-orbit connectivity now, you have to talk to Starlink”.
The EU signed a €10.6bn contract last month for an ambitious project to place 260 satellites in low and medium Earth orbit to provide secure communications to EU member states by 2030. Telespazio, a joint venture between Italian defence company Leonardo and France’s Thales, is among the many European aerospace and communications companies involved in the initiative, called Iris².
Beniamino Irdi, an Atlantic Council senior fellow, and former foreign and security policy adviser to the Italian government, warned that Rome’s signing up to Starlink for its government communications could rile Italy’s EU allies, as they aim to revive the bloc’s own flagging aerospace sector with its multi-orbit satellite project.
“It sends a political signal to the EU,” Irdi said. “Iris² is a symbol of Europe’s strategic autonomy, and a key EU member shifting to a different solution can be interpreted as a sign of divestment from that.”
Yet he said the Starlink offer was a model of the kind of dilemmas likely to confront US allies, as they were encouraged to jeopardise their long-term strategic interests to placate the incoming Trump administration, and its most powerful backer, Musk.
“This could be a pattern of US foreign policy vis-à-vis its allies,” Irdi said. “Knowing that Musk plays such a big role — and that Trump is so transactional in nature — US allies will be tempted to please Musk as a private actor, and put at stake their core strategic interests.”
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi
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