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Article by Annalisa Cangemi – Journalist, Fanpage.it

The European Parliament today approved the resolution on the White Paper on Defence , supporting the European Commission’s rearmament plan, ReArm Europe. The resolution was approved with 419 votes in favor out of 669, 204 against, and 46 abstentions. The vote report highlights the internal divisions within Italian political parties, which had already emerged in recent weeks, on the issue of defence and rearmament.

Looking at the votes cast by individual MEPs, we see opposing and very distant positions within both the center-left and the center-right. Not only is the Democratic Party split between those who abstained and those who voted in favor, but even within the majority there are vast, seemingly irreconcilable gaps.

“Europe needs a common defense, not an arms race among individual states. This is and remains the Democratic Party’s position,” Democratic Party Secretary Elly Schlein stated in a statement.

Today, Parliament voted on a resolution on common defense, with many points we agree with, but the resolution also supported the RearmEU plan proposed by Ursula von der Leyen, which we have raised and confirm is met with much criticism precisely because it facilitates the rearmament of individual states by incurring national debt, but does not contribute to common defense and actually risks delaying it. That plan must be changed. The European Union needs a shift in political integration and common investments—for an industrial, social, environmental, digital, and common defense plan, but not only that, and not at the expense of social issues and cohesion. It needs to increase industrial capacity and coordination, with the federalist vision of a common army at the service of a common foreign policy and a peace project. These are objectives we will continue to strive for every day,” he added.

She criticized the vice president of the European Parliament, who responded as follows: “The favorable vote of a significant portion of the Democratic Party delegation will ensure we don’t isolate ourselves from the rest of the Socialists and Democrats group. The construction of European defense is a chapter that has just begun, and it will be important not to lose ground in order to have a strong impact on future issues,” Pina Picierno wrote in a statement.

Thanks to the work of delegation leader Zingaretti, the European Parliament accepted a Democratic Party amendment regarding the need to focus more on strategic integration and the European dimension. Likewise, my colleague Annunziata, in the AFET committee, significantly improved the overall motion proposed by the Socialists. Overall, the entire delegation did an excellent job on the merits. For these reasons, I remain convinced that all the conditions were met to vote in favor, thus contributing to improving the process by staying within it. What’s needed now is dialogue, the ability to work together, and the recognition of each other’s legitimate positions: the secretaries have always engaged with the Democratic Party delegations, and even the pre-European summits were an opportunity to discuss urgent issues. For a long time, however, we have witnessed a closed-minded attitude from the leadership, which inexorably leads to divisions and rifts.

The vote on the resolution on rearmament and defense, party by party

The majority of the yes votes, 419 in total, on the Defense White Paper came from the People’s Party, which includes Tajani’s Forza Italia, and the Democrats and Socialists, which includes the Democratic Party MEPs in favor. From the Democratic Party (PD), those voting yes were Annunziata (subsequently, Annunziata changed her vote from yes to abstention), Bonaccini, De Caro, Gualmini, Gori, Lupo, Maran, Moretti, Picierno, Tinagli, and Topo. Also from the Democratic Party, abstentions were Benifei, Corrado, Laureti, Nardella, Ricci, Ruotolo, Strada, Tarquinio, Zan, Annunziata, and delegation leader Zingaretti.

In favor is the delegation of Brothers of Italy, which is in the ECR group: Berlato, Cavedagna, Ciccioli, Crosetto, Donazzan, Fidanza, Fiocchi, Gambino, Gemma, Inselvini, Magoni, Mantovani, Nesci, Picaro, Polato, Procaccini, Razza, Sberna, Squarta, Torselli, Ventola, Vivaldini.

The negative votes, however, were 204, and among them were members of the Northern League—Vannacci, Borchia, Ceccardi, Patriciello, Sardone, Tovaglieri, and Stancanelli—but also a minority of ECR ​​members (mostly Poles who disagree with Meloni), the Left (which also includes the Five Star Movement and the Italian Left), and a minority of Greens (including Italians).

Specifically, those voting against the Left were M5S MEPs Antoci, Della Valle, Furore, Morace, Pedullà, Tamburrano, Tridico, and Sinistra Italiana MEP Lucano. The Italian Greens (who sit alongside Si in the Italian Parliament in the AVS group) also voted against: Marino, Orlando, and Scuderi.

There were 46 abstentions, but with the exception of the ten Italians from the Democratic Party (Benifei, Corrado, Laureti, Nardella, Ricci, Ruotolo, Strada, Tarquinio, Zan, Zingaretti), they appear to have been only individual choices of dissent from the groups.

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