Tajani marks his difference with Salvini by acknowledging Russian election meddling

Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani said on Wednesday that he could not rule out attempts by the Russian Federation to interfere in elections across European Union countries, including Italy.

The a statement coincided with an investigation by the newspaper Repubblica reconstructing the mechanisms through which Moscow allegedly funds online influencer networks to turn public opinion against support for Kyiv. The two stories, while distinct, converge on the same theme: the growing attention from Italian and European institutions toward new forms of digital disinformation ahead of upcoming elections.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Wicklow, Ireland, Tajani said he did not consider himself “alarmist” nor believe a war was underway, but acknowledged the existence of “hybrid attacks against Europe,” which he said included cyberattacks, sabotage and espionage operations alongside disinformation campaigns.

According to Tajani, the goal of such campaigns would not be limited to targeting infrastructure or security apparatuses, but would aim to weaken the governability of member states and the EU’s capacity to adopt a common security policy, including by favouring political forces closer to Moscow’s positions. Tajani nonetheless expressed confidence in the resilience of the Italian electorate, saying citizens “will not be swayed,” while still stressing the need to “remain vigilant” and linking the warning to the recent reform of the Foreign Ministry.

Taking distance from Salvini and the Vannacci case

Tajani’s remarks drew a different response from fellow deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, who spoke of an “anti-Russian anxiety” that concerned him, stressing that he did not want to doubt the freedom of choice of Italian voters, who he said had never voted based on “Russian, Chinese, American, Israeli or Palestinian influence.”

“I’m not talking about Tajani, but it seems to me there is an anti-Russian anxiety that worries me,” Salvini said in Rome on 2 September.

The rift between the two deputy prime ministers emerged the same day the Financial Times ran a piece on Futuro Nazionale leader Roberto Vannacci, described in the headline as Moscow’s “Trojan horse” testing the resilience of the Meloni government.

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The British newspaper highlighted Vannacci’s positions in favour of reopening trade channels with Russia and his proposal to reassess Italy’s international commitments, including a possible exit from NATO, arguing that such positions tap into currents of pacifism and social discontent. Vannacci responded sarcastically, rejecting the label of “Manchurian candidate” and joking that Russian intelligence services had apparently “settled” for making an Italian general complain about fuel bills, rather than infiltrating NATO’s top ranks.

The mechanism behind influencer funding

Alongside the political debate, an investigation by Gianluca Di Feo and Giuliano Foschini published in Repubblica reconstructed what the two journalists describe as a new frontier of digital manipulation: funding and artificially growing content creators through advertising spots and follower purchases, with the aim of building an information ecosystem capable of spreading a narrative favourable to the Kremlin without leaving traces linked to political funding. According to the investigation, the mechanism exploits legal advertising channels, such as contracts, sponsored posts and regular invoices between communication agencies and individual creators, making it particularly difficult to distinguish ordinary commercial investment from a political influence operation.

The investigation cites intelligence sources according to which the goal of this strategy would be to undermine European Union cohesion, promoting the narrative that support for Ukraine is unjustified, useless and dangerous. In Italy, according to Repubblica, the communications regulator Agcom has already begun monitoring advertising financial flows, from both domestic and foreign sources, intended to fuel online disinformation, and at least three Italian cases are reported to have already undergone further scrutiny by security agencies.

The Romania elections precedent

The clearest case of this type of manipulation, according to Repubblica’s reconstruction, concerns Romania’s 2024 presidential elections, when authorities in Bucharest reportedly identified a campaign involving more than a hundred influencers and payments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, channeled through platforms normally used to connect companies with content creators. The Romanian precedent is cited as a reference model for understanding how similar mechanisms could be replicated in other European electoral contexts, including Italy’s.

According to the investigation, the phenomenon has already come to the attention of top Italian institutional figures, who are aware of the risk that an information ecosystem could grow through legal tools without leaving the fingerprint of a recognisable political subsidy. The two stories, the political vigilance announced by Tajani and the advertising manipulation reconstructed by Repubblica, are thus intertwined within a broader picture of institutional attention toward new forms of digital interference ahead of Italy’s upcoming elections.

The article in Italian by EUalive’s partner FocusEurope.it can be found here.

Caption: Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the press during the informal meeting of foreign ministers, Gymnich, in Wicklow, Ireland, 2 September 2026. Ireland holds the Presidency of the EU for six months until the end of 2026. EPA/ANGELO CARCONI