Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni says she supports Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s growing interference and is not discussing a deal to provide the country with secure communications.
Meloni dismissed concerns about the political involvement of Musk, a close aide to US President-elect Donald Trump, who has begun commenting on European politics on the social media platform X.
The right-wing leader has a good relationship with Mr Musk, making it increasingly likely that Italy will consider Starlink, which is part of Mr Musk’s SpaceX.
“I evaluate foreign investments through a single lens: the lens of the national interest, not the friendship or political views of those investing,” Reuters reported in a two-and-a-half-year press conference on January 9. quoting Mr. Meloni’s statement.
When the Musk question was repeatedly raised, Meloni said: “I would also like to take this opportunity to say that I have not personally spoken to Elon Musk about these issues.”
According to Reuters, SpaceX is negotiating a five-year deal worth 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion). The project has been heavily criticized by opposition parties, who have questioned whether communications should be handled by Musk’s company.
“We’re just in the investigation phase, so I don’t understand all of the accusations that have been made so far. Is the problem with SpaceX that it’s a private company or that Elon Musk’s political Is it in the ideology?” Meloni said.
Italy is considering using Musk’s space communications system to enable secure communications between government, diplomats and defense officials operating in key areas across the Mediterranean.
Meloni said Italy is dealing with the dilemma of how to protect sensitive communications data, as there is currently no Italian or EU-based system similar to Starlink.
Full deployment of the EU’s IRIS2 satellite constellation will not be possible until the end of 2030.
“Either we go to a private company or we don’t protect this data. Between the two suboptimal scenarios, what is the preferred scenario?” Meloni said.
Elon Musk has been a constant critic of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and just before next month’s German general election he supported the far-right party AfD.
Meloni supported Musk’s right to express his views.
“I don’t see this danger to democracy. Elon Musk is a very famous and wealthy person who expresses his ideas,” Meloni said.
