“The expenses in defense and security are the price of your freedom”. With this sentence, Giorgia Meloni has chosen to open her intervention to the Congress of Action. A message without nuances and that aims to legitimize one of the most ambitious and expensive maneuvers of recent European politics: the Rearm Europe plan, designed to strengthen the military expenditure of the Member States.
But behind the high -sounding words, the numbers are concrete and heavy. For Italy, in fact, to fully adhere to the project would mean investing up to 120 billion euros in four years. A figure that exceeds any extraordinary plan for school, health, climate. A cost that risks weighing everything on the shoulders of citizens, in the name of a greater safety.
How much the defense plan to Italy will cost
The European proposal aims to raise the military spending at 3% of GDP. For Italy, which today allocates to defense about 33 billion per yearit would be a matter of doubling the commitment. According to the first estimates, this would mean an increase in annual expenditure for the duration of the plan equal to:
- +7 billion in 2025;
- +17 billion in 2026;
- +27 billion in 2027;
- +37 billion in 2028.
The account, between 2025 and 2028, would oscillate thus Between 88 and 120 billion (in the case of full membership like other European countries). Impressive figures if compared with the structural definition of the public school or delays on the front of the ecological transition. And all this in a country that already records a 3.4% deficit: reaching 3% of the defense GDP could push the deficit to 5%.
Meloni’s position
From the stage of the Congress of Action, with Carlo Calenda, Meloni harshly attacked those who criticize the idea of a common European defense. According to the premier, the anti-Rarm vision seems to want something impossible.
Declares:
Is the proposal to break any form of alliance with the USA, but ask them to deal with our security the same or is it that Europe becomes a large demilitarized hippie community that hopes in the good faith of the other foreign powers?
And adds:
If you ask someone to guarantee your defense, you must know that someone will not do it for free. You must know that the interests of that someone on any table will be worth more than yours.
Meloni recognized that Italy’s economic situation is far from simple. The context, he explained, is unstable and unpredictable, and requires a preparation for complex scenarios. At the same time, he defended the current government line, claiming the need for seriousness in the management of public accountsin contrast with what he has called “wicked policies” inherited from the past. A direct reference to the superbonus and citizenship income, accused of having contributed to “devastating” the state accounts.
However, European rearmament is not only a question of security, but a political choice, with a price that could arrive for Italy up to 120 billion euros. A huge figure, which coexists with the reduction of social spending, the blocking of hiring in public services and the structural fragility of welfare.
A contradiction that denounced Maurizio Landinisecretary of the CGIL to the Assembly open on peace, work, environment and rights:
To say that security is guaranteed only with weapons is a lie. The government cuts social spending.
