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Giorgia Meloni is facing a political storm over the Italian government's talks with Elon Musk's SpaceX to provide secure communications, just as Europe launches its own rival satellite initiative.
Musk said on Monday that his company is “ready to provide Italy with the most secure and advanced connectivity.” His comments on social media platform X came after Italian The government has acknowledged ongoing discussions about using Starlink services for “encrypted data communications.”
The potential deal, said to be worth up to $1.5 billion, has sparked anger among Italian opposition politicians.
Centrist lawmaker Carlo Calenda, a former industry minister, warned on Tuesday that “contracting with Musk for such sensitive services — while patronizing the European far right, spreading fake news and interfering in the internal politics of European countries — cannot be an option.”
“It is simply not a solution compatible with national security,” Calenda said.
Eli Schlein, leader of the Democratic Party, the largest opposition party, called on Meloni and her ministers to appear in parliament to brief lawmakers on the talks with… SpaceX.
“If the price we have to pay for Musk’s friendship is $1.5 billion to put his satellites into orbit, we won’t accept that,” she said. “Italy will not sell everything.”
Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said: “If Musk wants to invest in Italy, he is welcome. If Musk wants Italian taxpayers’ money, Meloni must explain how, why and when.”
Meloni has developed a close personal friendship with the world's richest man, describing him as “brilliant”. Musk described her as “authentic, honest and thoughtful” and “more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside.” Her office denied a media report that she discussed a potential Starlink deal with US President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago last weekend, calling the proposal “simply ridiculous.”
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini rejected the idea that there were any risks in the SpaceX contract, and urged Meloni to speed up the deal.
“Musk is a champion of innovation at the global level: a possible agreement with him to ensure connectivity and modernity throughout Italy would not represent a risk but an opportunity,” Salvini said. “I am confident that the government will accelerate in this direction.”
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told parliament last year that Rome had no choice but to deal with SpaceX, given its current monopoly on low-orbit satellite communications, and said a potential European alternative would take years to get up and running.
Whatever people's personal opinions of Musk are, Crosetto said, “If you need low-orbit connectivity now, you should talk to Starlink.”
The European Union signed a contract worth 10.6 billion euros last month for an ambitious project to place 260 satellites in low and medium Earth orbit to provide secure communications for EU member states by 2030. Telespazio, a joint venture between the Italian defense company Leonardo and the French company Thales, is one of the Among several European airlines and telecommunications companies participating in the initiative, which is called Iris².
Beniamino Erdi, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former foreign and security policy adviser to the Italian government, warned that Rome's signing of Starlink for its government communications could anger Italy's EU allies, as they aim to revive the bloc's faltering aviation sector with a multi-orbit satellite project. .
“It sends a political signal to the European Union,” Erdi said. “Iris² is a symbol of Europe’s strategic independence, and a key EU member switching to a different solution could be interpreted as a sign of divestment from that.”
However, he said the Starlink offer was an example of the kind of dilemmas likely to face US allies, as they were encouraged to put their long-term strategic interests at risk to appease the incoming Trump administration, and its most powerful backer, Musk.
“This may be a pattern of American foreign policy toward its allies,” Erdi said. “Knowing that Musk plays such a large role — and that Trump is transactional by nature — U.S. allies will be tempted to pander to Musk as a private actor, putting their core strategic interests at risk.”
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi
