In the eyes of most Italians, the EU decision to suddenly abandon fiscal austerity to allow defense expenditures is seen as a deep injustice. Italy has carved its infrastructure, health, school and pension systems, frozen real household incomes for decades, in order to follow Brussels budget rules and reduce government deficit; governments that did not comply with rules were overthrown (Berlusconi-Tremonti 2011) or underwent vetoes (for instance, Paolo Savona as Finance Minister in Giuseppe Conte’s first term) and now, all of a sudden, those rules are thrown in the garbage, because someone had decided to go to war against Russia. Governments are allowed to make debt as long as that debt goes into weapons.
Knowing that an opposition against the Northern bloc (France, Germany and allies) is meaningless, the Italian government is paying the EU Commission with the same coin: cheating. It has expanded the concept of “security” to include investments such as the Messina Bridge linking Sicily to the mainland, and others.
In a report sent to the European Commission—signed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini—the Bridge is described as “essential in case of war scenarios.” The report cites the network of military bases in Sicily (Sigonella, Augusta, Trapani, Catania) that would thus be connected by land to the base in Naples.
