Never one Italy soldier to die in Macron's name says Salvini (4)

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 2 - Not one Italian soldier will ever die in the name of French President Emmanuel Macron, Deputy Premier, Transport Minister and rightwing League party leader Matteo Salvini said after the French leader told Friday's Economist that Weestern ground troops in Ukraine cannot be ruled out if Moscow breaks through the front lines and Kyiv makes a formal request for NATO boots on the ground.
    "Never one Italian soldier to die in Macron's name, that's what I think" Salvini said on social media about the Economist interview.
    MEP Sandro Gozi, secretary general of the European Democratic Party and member of Macron's Renaissance party's Team Europe for the upcoming European elections, said that "the first immediate response to the French president's words did not come from the official spokesperson of the Russian foreign ministry, Maria Zakharova, but from the real Kremlin spokesman in Europe, Matteo Salvini." Gozi, a former bigwig in the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said "it's not actually a surprise, because Salvini has always been very clear on Putin and the Ukraine war.
    "No strategic ambiguity: he has chosen what side to be on, that of Putin and Russia obviously"," said Gozi, posting a famous photo of Salvini in Red Square wearing a t-shirt with Putin's face on it.
    Salvini has in the past stated his admiration of the Russian president, saying he is "worth two Mattarellas", the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, but has condemned the Russina invasion while calling on Kyiv to negotiate more recently.
    (ANSA).