Guido Crosetto

He earlier served as mayor of Marene, deputy for over a decade, and defence undersecretary. He is named among the possible contenders for Prime Minister of Italy in the next general election.

Career

Crosetto studied economics at the University of Turin without graduating. He was in Christian Democracy from 1985 to 1994, mayor of Marene from 1990 to 2004, and a member of Forza Italia from 2000 and of The People of Freedom from 2009. He sat in the Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2013 and again in 2018-2019, and was Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Defence from 2008 to 2011. In December 2012 he co-founded Brothers of Italy, presiding over it until April 2013 and serving as national coordinator in 2013-2014 and 2018-2019. He has been Minister of Defence since October 2022.

Positions

Wikipedia describes Crosetto as identifying as anti-fascist and moderate, holding Christian-democratic conservative views, and favouring closer European integration and greater European defence autonomy within NATO. As minister he has backed support for Ukraine and Italian deployments in the Gulf and Red Sea. In 2026 he criticised the US and Israeli military action against Iran as contrary to international law, according to Wikipedia. In 2025 an Italian newspaper interview quoted him saying that Giorgia Meloni should be the centre-right's candidate for prime minister.

Controversies

In October 2025 a complaint dated 1 October, signed by about 50 lawyers, academics and public figures, was lodged at the International Criminal Court. It alleges that Italy's arms supplies to Israel make the government complicit in genocide and war crimes in Gaza, and it names Prime Minister Meloni, Foreign Minister Tajani and Crosetto. Al Jazeera reported that the court had not confirmed it. Crosetto said deliveries follow contracts signed before 7 October 2023 and that Israel gave assurances the weapons would not be used against civilians.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipedia · Al Jazeera

Photo: Ministero della Difesa, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons (cropped)