Premier Giorgia Meloni received a “slap in the face” from French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz when the duo on Tuesday called for NATO-supplied weapons to be fired into Russian territory after the Italian PM had called for “prudence” on the issue, leftwing populist opposition 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader and former premier Giuseppe Conte told an ANSA forum in the run-up to the European elections Wednesday.

“Meloni dared to say we should be more prudent, but she got a slap in the face from Macron and Scholz,” he said.

Recalling that the two leaders had arms given to Kyiv must be “ready to strike Russian military targets,” Conte argued that “we are entering the Third World War and they don’t want to tell us that”.

Conte has been against supplying more and more weapons to Kyiv.

The ex premier also told the forum that “NATO mustn’t be thrown into the bin but reformed and rethought”.

He recalled that he had not agreed with Macron when the French president “pronounced NATO brain dead”.