The Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Matteo Salvini survived a vote of no confidence in the lower house of the Italian Parliament, the world agencies reported, quoted by BTA.
The vote was brought by the opposition, with the centrists joining it. The vote concerned the connections of Salvini's far-right party "League". with Russia. Voters blamed Salvini's party, which is part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's governing coalition, for not having figuratively cut the bridges with Russia and the ruling Russian party "United Russia".
A total of 209 deputies from the Chamber of Deputies voted against the vote of no confidence, which was supported by only 129 parliamentarians. Three people abstained.
The fifty-one-year-old leader of the party "League" he has long been an admirer of Russia. On March 6, 2017, he signed a five-year agreement for the cooperation of his political force with the ruling Russian party. The agreement was automatically renewed in 2022. In a 2017 announcement on "Facebook" Salvini said that with this treaty, the two countries are committed to fighting illegal immigration and Islamist terrorism and working to end Western sanctions against Russia.
The opposition and centrists in Italy have called on the leader of the "League" to present evidence showing that the party ended this alliance after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"The goals of the cooperation, which was purely political in 2017 between the "League" and "United Russia" have no more value after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Salvini's party said in response to the calls.
Salvini also condemned the Russian invasion, but has recently been criticized for pro-Putin remarks made after the Russian president was re-elected in controversial terms.
Shortly before the vote of no confidence in the "League" published a statement distancing itself from the cooperation agreement with the Russian ruling party.
Salvini was also criticized for not holding the Russian president responsible for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a penal colony.
The vote of no confidence against the deputy prime minister had a symbolic value, given that the governing coalition has a majority in the Chamber of Deputies as well as in the Senate.
"League", which is allied to far-right forces such as "National Assembly" and "Alternative for Germany", is losing momentum and is below 10 percent in polls for the European elections.