ROME, July 30. /TASS/. Believing that rearmament is necessary for greater security and conflict prevention is a mistake, newspaper Il Resto del Carlino quoted Nicola Fratoianni, the leader of the opposition Italian party Greens and Left Alliance.

"The idea that rearmament will help avoid the danger of conflicts and wars is a mistake. History shows that every time an arms race takes place, it only leads to an increase in conflicts and instability," he said.

The politician noted that Italy lacks the funds for fundamental goals such as investing in healthcare and education and increasing salaries.

"Inflation erodes people’s purchasing power. And here we have the government increasing its defense spending, which we strongly oppose," he said. Fratoianni also questioned how the government intends to fulfill its commitment to increase military spending to 5% of GDP within the next 10 years as part of NATO's agreement.

"This is a flawed policy from both an economic and political perspective," he pointed out.

At the penultimate NATO summit, the countries pledged to increase military spending to 5% of GDP, with 3.5% allocated for weapons and 1.5% for infrastructure projects.

Rome intends to use the funds from the European military lending program SAFE. It will decide whether it will use around 15 billion euros, as initially planned, or no more than 4-6 billion until the end of the year.

According to media reports, there is disagreement within the ruling majority on this issue. The League party, which is part of the ruling coalition, insists that this issue should be debated by parliament.