Louis DiMaio Four months after Civic Commitment’s defeat in the September 25 election, he made his first politically motivated public appearance. And the context was anything but secondary: the former foreign minister traveled to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the sideline events of the World Economic Forum on January 18.
Di Maio was invited from Ukraine for a dinner in support of Kyiv organized by First Lady of Kyiv Olena Zelenska. A private trip, then, not without reference to the role of international visibility that he held until four months ago. Di Maio was invited by Ukraine House Davos, the organization led by Executive Director Ulyana Khromyak, which sponsors a series of public and private events dedicated to the country during World Economic Forum days. This year, the activities of Ukraine House are jointly organized by Western NIS Enterprise Fund, Horizon Capital Fund and Victor Pinchuk Foundation, whose representative Svitlana Grytsenko is a member of the Board of Directors of Ukraine House Davos.
The Victor Pinchuk Foundation has officially invited Di Maio: it’s a pro-European think tank that proclaims itself “non-partisan” and independent and was founded in Ukraine in 2006. Its founder, Victor Pinchuk, is a 62-year-old billionaire who takes over the management of the Interpipe Group, manufacturer of pipes and bolts, and the soil East One group. Among the partners of the foundation that Di Maio has invited are renowned think tanks such as the Aspen Institute, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Brookings Institution, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, George Soros’ Open Society Institute, which have already done so in the past the International Renaissance Foundation of the Yalta European Strategy (Yes) think tank, founded in 2013 by Pinchuk, who has always been close to Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum, and advocated for Kiev’s NATO entry.
In this political milieu was Di Maio, the only Italian present at the “Friends of Ukraine” dinner at Ukraine House Davos. Among the other authorities gathered were several protagonists of support for Ukraine in the War of Resistance that began on February 24: the President of the Republic of Latvia Egils Levits, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, perhaps the most combative of the anti-Russian European politicians, the Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmes.
“The Ukrainians deserve our full support,” Di Maio told Adnkronos on the eve of the departure. The foreign minister of Mario Draghi’s government spoke at the prestigious gala Granted support to Kyiv: “As Minister of Foreign Affairs, I signed five decrees in support of the Ukrainian resistance and I am proud of it because I know your worth, because I know you are a nation that defends us all, I know you are true patriots , and I am sure that “Italy will continue to support you. In the end, you will reclaim your country,” concluded Di Maio, who, even after the end of the institutional experience, is reviving himself as a staunch supporter of Ukraine in the most politically-minded Davos ever. Inside and outside the drawing rooms of the Wef.
Di Maio continues his personal diplomacy with whom he wants to recycle himself politically after the end of his ministerial experience. The harsh electoral debacle and the failure of reconfirmation in the chamber in his Campania constituency have not dampened the ambition of the former leader of the Five Star Movement. Di Maio has long made his stint behind Draghi in support of Ukraine a calling card for his new career as a European boyar, giving heavy weight to the role of Farnesina’s ‘great ex’. A role borne out by the article in Il Foglio on January 9, in which Di Maio’s praise of the Ukrainian resistance is clear: “Since the beginning of the conflict, the Ukrainian nation’s pro-European, Atlanticist, democratic and sovereign impulses have influenced the public debate around the world. A phenomenon that, after years of inertia, has greatly accelerated economic, energy and political processes,” wrote the former foreign minister in an article eloquently titled “Thank you, Ukraine.” Di Maio’s real goal is clear, it is the European negotiating post with the Gulf over natural gas, on which the Italian government has already built a wall. But to get that, Di Maio is ready to do anything. Even overshadows the fact that there is already Italian diplomacy that continues to support Ukraine. And it is that of the Meloni government.