The final decision on whether to continue sending aid to Ukraine, Conte said, should be determined by a primary of left-wing voters, who will be asked to decide on who leads the coalition into the next election. “We’ll unravel this knot with the primaries. We’ll let Italians decide,” he said.
Conte emphasized that the main objective is to reach a negotiated solution to the war by talking to both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“Does Putin not want to negotiate? Let’s sit down and talk; let’s see what happens,” said Conte, underlining that any peace deal has to protect Kyiv’s interests.
The 5Stars leader also opposes increasing defense budgets — a key promise by Meloni to bring Italy in line with NATO’s new spending target.
But Conte’s words opened an immediate divide with the Democratic Party, which is the biggest grouping on the center-left.
Party leader Elly Schlein on Monday rejected the idea of Ukraine policy being set in a primary vote. “It doesn’t work that way. First comes the program agreed upon by the entire alliance, and then the primaries, because whoever wins them must lead the entire coalition, not just their own party,” she said.