The designs of the president of the Italian council, nationalist and conservative, Giorgia Meloni, and her « ami » Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet and new godfather of the global extreme right, could well continue their convergence in low Earth orbit. As the inauguration ceremony of the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, approaches, Monday January 20, and the entry into office alongside him, within the future American administration, of Mr. Musk, the he openness expressed by the Italian government towards SpaceX, the oligarch’s space company already projects the image of a Europe advancing in dispersed order in the face of the new two-headed power which is establishing itself in Washington.
The potential provision to Rome of secure satellite communications thanks to the Starlink device would indeed resemble a new blow to the idea of strategic autonomy in a space domain where the European Union is already far behind. This possibility was the subject of intense debate in Italy after the publication, in early January, by the Bloomberg agency, of information according to which negotiations between Italy and SpaceX had been relaunched for a contract of 1, 5 billion euros. The deal could involve using Mr. Musk’s satellites and Starlink to secure government and military communications.
It also appears in a context marked by speculation about future relationships between Mme Meloni, who was a virulent Eurosceptic in opposition, and Washington. Speculation motivated by his demonstrative, ideological and personal proximity to Mr. Musk and by the encouraging beginnings of his relationship with Mr. Trump. The theme of the contract between Rome and SpaceX has also emerged as Brussels has just launched, in December 2024, but with a delay, the Iris² constellation project. Supposed to provide the same type of services to Europeans, it will not however be able to do so before 2030, having to have only 290 satellites, compared to some 7,000 satellites already in orbit in the Starlink constellation.
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