A nine-column headline on the front page of a centre-right newspaper was enough to shatter relations between the Prime Minister (male, let it be clear) Giorgia Meloni and the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella. The facts: the newspaper “La Verità” headlines “The Quirinale Plan to stop Meloni”, based on an email sent by a certain “Mario Rossi” from a secret account, “[email protected]”.

The email, apparently, was sent to all the major national newspapers and contained a tissue article of dubious quality (read “disinformation”), which told of an alleged utterance by Francesco Saverio Garofani, former parliamentarian of the Democratic Party and now advisor to the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, during a dinner on the sidelines of a ceremony in memory of the unforgettable Roma captain Agostino Di Bartolomei. According to Belpietro, Garofani would have said that to oust Giorgia Meloni from power – see the next political elections in the spring of 2027 and the election of the next President of the Republic (Mattarella’s mandate will expire in February 2029) – it would take “a providential jolt”. Subsequently it was learned that Garofani would never have uttered such a sentence and that the “shock”, if anything, referred to the situation of the centre-left – or Campo Largo, if you prefer.

From the hoax to the political clash: the Bignami-Mattarella case

The institutional problem manifested itself when, in the aftermath of the fake news published on the front page of “La Verità” (a name that conceals an involuntary sense of self-irony), the group leader of the Chamber of Brothers of Italy, Galeazzo (evocative name) Bignami – known in the newspapers for having dressed up as a Nazi leader at a carnival party a few years ago – issued a surreal press note with incendiary tones against President Mattarella: “We learn from the press that people who hold the role of advisors to the Quirinale would like initiatives against President Meloni and the centre-right (…) We trust that these reconstructions will be denied without delay, in deference to the respect due for the important role held, otherwise having to deduce their validity”. Bignami asks the Quirinale to deny a fanciful journalistic reconstruction reported by Belpietro on the basis of an email, in fact anonymous, which reports unverifiable facts. The Quirinale, dragged into a situation bordering on the surreal in Monty Python style, is forced to respond in kind: “Astonishment at the declaration of the group leader in the Chamber of the relative majority party which seems to give credence to yet another attack on the Presidency of the Republic bordering on the ridiculous”. The use of words never used before by the Quirinale, such as “Stupor” and “ridiculous” – at least in the same press note – conveys the gravity of the matter.

Italy, soft underbelly of Russian propaganda?

The gravity of the situation is also linked to the historical juncture which sees the creation of a new tripolar world order – China, Russia, United States of America – also considering that we are in the midst of at least two major armed conflicts (the Israeli-Palestinian one and the Russian-Ukrainian one). The greatest risk lies in the fact that our country – together with Germany – now represents the soft underbelly of Russian propaganda and disinformation, favorable to a soft narrative towards Vladimir Putin, to the detriment of all those political figures – such as our President Mattarella and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen – and of those institutions – such as the Presidency of the Italian Republic and the European Union – which defend the Western liberal democratic state from the widespread tendency and sympathy of certain parties and political exponents towards of despotisms, more or less oriental. Italy is returning, after the Cold War period, to being a great “bridge of spies”, in which different factions face each other through influences and infiltrations, more or less legitimate, in political institutions and disinformation activities and initiatives in all media at every level. Only in the last five years has there been at least one conviction and trial of our compatriots for having passed secrets and sensitive and strategic information to Russian spies. This is the case, for example, of the Navy officer Walter Biot, sentenced to 20 years – confirmed in the Court of Assizes of Appeal last June – for having passed secret documents to a Russian official in exchange for five thousand euros. As well as the two Brianza entrepreneurs sent to trial – the sentence is expected at the beginning of 2026 – who according to the prosecution carried out espionage activities for Russian intelligence, in exchange for payments in cryptocurrencies. In short, espionage at all levels, from the highest to the lowest levels. Taking into account this climate of espionage spread throughout the national territory of Russian origin, the lightness committed by Belpietro’s “La Verità”, with the consequent fuss raised by the group leader in the Chamber of Brothers of Italy, gives shivers. Not because this story is directly linked to pre-arranged disinformation activities with an espionage background, but because it represents – certainly involuntarily – yet another episode of disinformation aimed at attacking the key figures – undoubtedly including President Mattarella – who are currently committed to defending our values ​​of Western democracy: Europeanism and Atlanticism, an alternative both to the Russian aims and to the so casual policy of the Trumpian administration. This is why it is important to clarify the positions of the various political parties – both in the center-right and in the center-left – not only with respect to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but also with respect to the Trump administration’s attitude of appeasement towards Putin.

Yesterday’s anti-system, today’s ruling class

Finally, it is curious to note how those who in the past politically attacked the figure of Sergio Mattarella went on to have great careers in institutions, such as Luigi Di Maio and Giorgia Meloni. It was May 2018 and the Conte I government was being formed – the “yellow-green” one with the 5 Star Movement and the League. Mattarella, in fact, had opposed the nomination of Paolo Savona as Minister of Finance, who was not very popular with European chancelleries due to his previous anti-euro positions. On that occasion, Di Maio and Meloni went so far as to ask for impeachment, or the impeachment of our President of the Republic, with Giovanbattista Fazzolari who, discussing the matter with Meloni herself via Twitter, compared Mattarella to an “aspiring devil”, to the point of defining him as “a wreck”. Statements later deleted by the current Undersecretary of State at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers himself, who even deleted his Twitter profile. Here, this is the breeding ground in which various parties of our constitutional arc move, perhaps even today. A generally anti-system orientation which has, at least in the past, called into question many of the foundations of our democracy. An orientation that, albeit involuntarily, is functional to massive Russian disinformation. A reality and not an imaginary conspiracy. These active agents of disinformation are among us, they move by any means, they contact us and try in every way to obtain information, influencing the debate and destabilizing our democracy. And all this because we are at war. And this is why our political leaders, even if driven by genuine motivations, must reflect before giving rise to controversies that undermine the foundations of our institutions.