Now it is law: the military ranges, 65% of the Italian ones are located in Sardinia, can be "nominated" by the Ministry of Defense to "host" the single nuclear waste repository. The final seal on the "white coup" was placed by the Senate of the Republic on Wednesday evening. Vote of confidence, so as not to waste time and to secure the result. No further amendments, no possibility of modification compared to what was already approved on 26 January by the Chamber of Deputies. On Wednesday night, the last day of January, the measure transformed into law by parliamentary vote was already on its way to the State Mint. Within the next few hours it should end up in the Official Journal.
Countdown started
The countdown, however, has already started, complete with calendar in hand. The only substantial change to the text of the law was approved in the Chamber, moving the waste clock to after the Sardinian elections. In practice, the Ministry of Defence, canceling all statutory and constitutional competence of the Sardinian Region, could nominate one of the island's military ranges for nuclear "massacre" by March 13th, after the already devastating attack of bombs and missiles against coast and environment of Sardinia.
Date blitz
A real blitz also in terms of deadlines given that the possible candidacy of a military range on the island to host that nefarious single deposit of atomic waste will be revealed only after February 25th, the date set for the renewal of the Regional Council and the election of the President of the Region. Therefore, regional elections in the dark, without the Government having previously and transparently communicated whether or not it intends to nominate Sardinian military sites for that unfortunate hypothesis.
Dangerous silence
It is clear that Palazzo Chigi, and above all the Ministry of Defence, already have the decision in hand given that in the original decree, before the changes by the Chamber, the deadline of thirty days from the republication of the map of sites suitable for hosting the single filing occurred on December 13th. The Ministry of "Armaments", therefore, if the previous deadline had remained in force, now moved to ninety days, would have had to transmit the candidacy of the military site by January 13th. A date which, if respected, would have revealed the cards before the Sardinian regional elections, a very dangerous temporal vulnerability , especially if a Sardinian military area had been nominated among those military sites destined to receive the radioactive waste, perhaps located between Teulada, Quirra, La Maddalena, Capo Frasca or Poglina.
Election calendar
A "strategic calendar" operation designed to safeguard the pre-election "silence" on radioactive issues, without revealing the cards before the vote on February 25th. The site selection mechanism for the single waste deposit, in fact, was radically modified by the decree of the Meloni Government given that a regulation relating to "self-nominations" to host the deposit was introduced out of the blue. A possibility actually already contained in the previous legislation, but which had had no effect. Now, however, by reopening the terms for "nuclear volunteers", it has been decided to go beyond local authorities. In the text of the decree, just converted into law, in fact, Municipalities and Regions that wish to "sort out" the waste under their homes, but not only, will be able to submit nominations. With a sort of "military commissionership" of the site selection procedure, a very weighty variable has been introduced, both on a substantial and constitutional level: even the Ministry of Defence, in total tax autonomy, can advance the candidacy of military ranges. A choice that would be completely and seriously removed from the democratic "governance" of Municipalities and Regions, with the full decision-making autonomy of the Ministry of Defense. Having decided to move the hands of the "day counter" forward with respect to the Sardinian elections also constitutes for this reason a real ambush on "transparency". It would have been not only dutiful, but also intellectually honest, to exclude Sardinia both from the areas already indicated in Marmilla and in the Alto Oristano, maps "authorised" first by the Conte II Government and then by the Meloni Government, as well as from the military ranges located in the Island.
Loyalty denied
The de facto tax clause that places the choice of site in military hands constitutes a very serious precedent. The Constitution and the autonomous Statute of Sardinia have, in fact, reserved the "Government of the Territory" exclusively to the Region which now, however, as regards the location of the nuclear depot, falls under the availability of the Ministry of Defence. With this legislative blitz, the principle of "institutional loyalty" which should have imposed a clause in parliament to safeguard and protect the role of the Special Statute Region is lost. It is all too clear that the Government, with the choice of the Ministry of Defense as the sole point of contact in the voluntary and autonomous indication of the potential military site, intends to act without consulting other institutional subjects.
Before, not after
The even more serious fact is that this possible choice is temporally postponed beyond the regional elections, preventing the Sardinians from a timely and transparent assessment of this matter. Intellectual honesty and institutional correctness would require the Government to reveal before the February vote whether or not it intends to identify a Sardinian military site to create the single depot. An official choice, in one sense or another. In short, a binding act from the Ministry of Defense that excludes the choice of Sardinia or makes it explicit with a declared desire to choose the island as a military area to be nominated for the construction of the single radioactive waste repository. Silence, evidently, would be a harbinger of an electoral campaign "poisoned" even more by that "nuclear" suspicion which is in itself very serious, capable of weighing quite a lot on the ballots.
Offshore wind power
Sardinia, however, in the Energy decree just transformed into law by the Senate, could suffer other very heavy decisions on its "Landscape". In fact, in the original decree, two strategic poles were foreseen for the development of offshore wind power. During the parliamentary process the word " at least " was added in front of the initial prediction of " two" . A decision that broadens the field of action with the risk of placing yet another easement in Sardinian ports intended to encourage wind attack on the island's sea. There are at least three ports at stake: that of Cagliari, with the disputed establishment of a company that declares it wants to create an offshore hub, that of Arbatax where Saipem operates and an Apulian company without any experience that has declared that it wants to deal with offshore wind turbines, and, finally, Oristano, declared as a stopover for the wind invasion by various multinationals. Sardinia, therefore, surrounded. On the one hand the waste potentially destined for military ranges and on the other the new potential offshore wind speculators.
