About 1,000 protesters participated on Saturday in a demonstration against NATO bases in the city of Vicenza, located in northeastern Italy.
"The problem of the presence of NATO in Italy is a problem felt all around Italy. If you want to have an image of what NATO means in Europe, you have to think about Spartan troops in Athens in ancient times," the journalist told Sputnik.
According to the journalist, the United States uses its military bases in Europe for the purpose of global surveillance. For instance, the US base in Sicily is particularly important to Washington because it allows the United States to monitor and carry out surveillance in North Africa and the Middle East.
Washington can justify its actions as some kind of "defence" against potential threats, however, its surveillance rather resembles "an offensive," he argued.
"I think Italy should choose not to be a part of this. It is not in Italy's national interest," Gallo argued.
Earlier, the Italian opposition party Five Stars (M5S) Movement repeatedly criticized the Italian government's policy with respect to the country's troop deployment to a NATO mission in Latvia. Members of the movement also called to organize a referendum on the presence of NATO military bases in the country.
