Crosetto: investment in weapons and defence to prevent attacks

"We had a slight increase in money for arms investments because we realised that we were not prepared to face a war on our territory or an attack because in recent years we had built up a defence, one of the best in the world for peace operations at an international level, but we had forgotten that someone could attack us". This is how Defence Minister Guido Crosetto replied on Five Minutes to Vespa who asked him if it was true that we would not be able to defend ourselves in the event of an attack such as Russia's attack on Ukraine or Iran's missiles on Israel.

The draft budget law defines the automotive fund managed by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy (Mimit) for interventions up to 2030 as 4.55 billion. At the same time, with what at first glance appears to be a very clear-cut industrial policy orientation, probably also dictated by the current geopolitical scenarios, the government (see Il Sole 24 Ore of 29 October) is focusing on the defence industry (development in the aeronautics sector, technology for national area defence Fremm naval units, contributions to the maritime-national defence sector) for a total of over EUR 11.3 billion, spread however over a very long time span (just under EUR 3 billion in the three-year period, and the vast majority share, around EUR 8 billion, distributed over the following years until 2039).

The minister then went on to call for the separation of defence spending from the stability pact. "In the latest NATO meetings there is talk of 2.5 per cent of GDP to be allocated to Defence: this is a problem for a country like ours that has a high public debt that we have inherited. We must focus,' reiterated Crosetto, 'on excluding defence spending from the calculation of the stability pact, it must not be in competition with spending on culture, schools, social welfare and health. They must be detached because defence is a prerequisite for everything else to exist'.

"This year, with a huge effort, we have increased the number of soldiers at the disposal of Strade and Stazioni Sicure by eight hundred. I think that from next year it is perhaps more important to increase the police force and let the armed forces resume doing what is needed at the moment," added Crosetto, on the sidelines of the celebrations in Venice to mark National Unity and Armed Forces Day. Crosetto explained that the support will continue in the coming years, "but with a trend that will decrease the contribution of the armed forces and must see a corresponding increase in that of the police forces".