Russian Gas and the Fight for the Italian Right: Implications of Meloni's and Salvini's Russian Energy Policy in the 2024 EU Parliamentary Elections
Publisher: CeSPI - Centro Studi di Politica Internazionale
Author(s): Tyler Leonard
Date: 2024
Topics: Basic Services, Extractive Resources
Countries: Italy, Russian Federation, Ukraine
On 8 and 9 June 2024, the Italian public will elect its tenth delegation to the European Union (EU) Parliament. Based on public opinion polls, a record 67% of EU citizens plan to vote in the 2024 parliamentary elections, a 9% increase from the previous election turnout in 2019.
In Italy, the most salient political questions to potential voters involve the state of the nation’s economy, access to jobs and public healthcare, and the fight against domestic poverty. Within the broader context of Italian popular interest in the elections, these various issues coalesce to make the health of the national economy the primary concern for many Italian voters.
An important facet in maintaining this national economic fitness is natural gas, which accounts for nearly half of the country’s overall electricity generation. An energy source essential to domestic infrastructure and industry, natural gas is also a vital asset to Italian objectives on the international stage; in recent years, Italy has indicated a political desire to become an energy hub capable of increasing exports to other EU countries and North Africa. However, there is a fundamental security issue impeding this international economic agenda: Italy’s historic reliance on Russia for gas imports amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.