Italy is trying to connect two levels of the same challenge: the domestic need to react quickly to hybrid crises and the European need to defend democratic processes against hostile information operations.
Why it matters: The point was raised on Thursday in the Italian Senate by Senator Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata, a member of Brothers of Italy and chair of the Senate EU Policies Committee, during the debate on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s communications ahead of the next European Council.
- Terzi framed the issue as part of a wider transatlantic agenda. “It is in the Italian, European, American and transatlantic interest that the whole EU remains united within the G7, within NATO and in the major political initiatives ranging from economic corridors in the Indo-Pacific to the Mattei Plan for Africa,” he said.
Decoding the news: Terzi then pointed to what he described as a crucial issue to be addressed at the upcoming European Council: cognitive manipulation.
- “Disinformation is a huge threat to our societies, a danger that worries and alarms all EU member states and, perhaps even more, candidate countries,” he said. “There is no formal or informal meeting at European or interparliamentary level in which the issue does not emerge.”
- He argues that hybrid strategies are no longer limited to cyberattacks, sabotage or pressure on critical infrastructure. They also include disinformation, foreign interference and cognitive manipulation aimed at democratic decision-making.
- “These hybrid strategies of disinformation, foreign interference and cognitive manipulation in democratic processes are designed to weaken our democratic stability,” Terzi said.
The European angle. The senator cited France’s Viginum, the agency created to monitor and protect the country against foreign digital interference, as one of the clearest European examples of an institutional response to the problem.
- The reference matters because several European governments are now moving in the same direction: treating information manipulation not only as a communications issue, but as a matter of national security.
The Italian move. Terzi also linked the discussion to a new step announced by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. “Just yesterday here in the Senate, Minister Tajani announced the establishment at the Farnesina of a new directorate general and an operations room to manage hybrid threats,” he said.
- That announcement fits into a broader process already reported by Decode39. Italy plans to set up a new crisis-response mechanism designed to speed up the state’s reaction to hybrid threats, including cyberattacks, energy shocks, foreign interference, sabotage and other crises affecting national interests.
- The mechanism strengthens coordination among the prime minister, key ministers, the intelligence community and the national security decision-making system.
- Its purpose is to reduce overlap, shorten response times and give the government a clearer chain of command when a crisis cuts across different parts of the state.
Between the lines. Italy is moving toward a more integrated idea of security. The battlefield is no longer only military:
- It includes ports, satellites, electricity grids, telecommunications networks, financial systems, hospitals, undersea cables and the information space in which public opinion is shaped.
- That is why the new focus on cognitive manipulation is not separate from Rome’s crisis-response architecture. It is part of the same shift.
- A cyberattack can disrupt services. A sabotage operation can damage infrastructure. A disinformation campaign can weaken trust, paralyse institutions and make a democratic system less able to respond to both.
The big picture. Terzi’s remarks also place the Italian debate inside a transatlantic frame. The message is that EU cohesion, NATO coordination and G7 alignment are not abstract diplomatic formulas.
- They are conditions for resilience in a strategic environment where hostile actors exploit every fracture, from security policy to public debate. This means that hybrid threats must be handled both at home and in Europe.
- At home, through faster crisis coordination and stronger institutional tools. In Europe, through a common agenda on disinformation, foreign interference and cognitive security.
The bottom line. Italy’s security debate is entering a new phase.
- The crisis-response task force was about making the state faster. The new emphasis on cognitive manipulation is about making democracy harder to destabilise.
