A match that will involve the Defense, and which will see Crosetto engaged in a difficult negotiation with his Government colleagues, starting with the head of the Mef Giorgetti, is that which concerns the strengthening of the personnel. «The issue of personnel has not been abandoned, even if it is not present in this bill» explained Crosetto, during the hearing at the Senate Foreign Affairs and Defense Commission on the bill for the strengthening and adaptation of national defense capacity which took place on Thursday 1 October.
«It was decided to distinguish the technical provisions, which constitute this provision, from the interventions which instead involve a structural intervention of the staff and which therefore require multi-year financial coverage and can only be carried out after the Budget. So we will have two bills to simplify everything." «When in the past I spoke about a hypothesis of increasing the Reserve component up to 40 thousand units - added the head of Defense - I explained that this measure has multi-year coverage problems to be addressed with the budget law. This is the point: the public finance framework requires us to distinguish interventions that can proceed immediately from those that require additional structural resources. The path to increase defense spending in 2026 also had to deal with the constraints associated with the European excessive deficit procedure. The needs relating to staff, reserves, personnel, specificity, infrastructure and accommodation therefore remain part of the overall process, but will have to be addressed by Parliament subsequently, in parallel with this legal provision".
As regards the size of the Cyber Force of the Italian Armed Forces, the head of Defense clarified on the same occasion that "it is defined within the resources we have today" and predicts that "by 2026 there could be a maximum of 1200 within the 160 thousand" total military personnel indicated as the current objective of the Armed Forces. In the future, "we can then increase it - he continued regarding those specialized in cybersecurity - but today it is defined within the resources we have now".
Another unknown concerns the strengthening of Safe Roads. On Thursday the League received the first green light for its resolution which has been in place since April on an issue that had created disagreements in the majority, since last year in November Crosetto had underlined the need to "increase the police force to bring the military back to their original job". Until a few weeks ago the issue had generated tensions, with the League pressing to increase the contingent and Fi and FdI more cautious, then the Defense commission in the Chamber chose to overcome the stalemate and give the OK to the resolution, voted by the entire majority.
The provision aims to strengthen the operation - which since 2008 has employed the Armed Forces for prevention and security - bringing the military personnel employed on the national territory from around 6,800 to 10 thousand for an increase of 3,200 units, always destined for the security of cities, railway stations and sensitive places. Furthermore, the extension of military garrisons to the 61 provincial capitals which are currently lacking and the hiring of new carabinieri is also planned. Beyond the political will to go in that direction, the short blanket of resources outlines many unknowns.
Meanwhile, according to what was reconstructed by the Minister of Public Administration Paolo Zangrillo, the Council of Ministers has given the green light to two contract hypotheses relating to 2025-2027. «I am referring to the local functions sector and the security and defense sector», explained Zangrillo.
In the background there is another thread, which is that of European funds. Crosetto himself clarified that the funds that Italy requested from the EU in the form of loans from the Safe program for 8.9 billion "are confirmed" and "are moving forward". «They are determined, we have communicated this to Europe. In short, it's a technical thing" he added. The minister did not comment on the timing needed to sign the loan and release the first tranche which would correspond to 15% of the total.
