"Now more Italian ships in the Mediterranean. Situation changed, we have to protect our interests, we have to defend Italians and Italian interests in a different way because today's Mediterranean is not what it was just 3 years ago: we need a new vision, a new presence. No belligerent aggression, but things have changed here, we have to realize it ". The Minister of Defense would have reported Guerini to his closest collaborators. In the last meeting of the Superior Council of Defense, Guerini e Di Maio they would have shared this new strategy.
(by Andrea Pinto) This is the thought of the Minister of Defense which was shared with the senior officers of his General Staff, the indiscretion was reported by Nigro on Repubblica. To move the torpor on the matter was the story of the 18 fishermen kidnapped in Benghazi by the militias of general Haftar. Apparently there was also an accident that would have had a greater impact, that of the non-intervention of the Navy which on the night of the kidnapping was 100 miles from the 2 fishing boats with a destroyer. The coldness of the commander of the Italian military ship probably prevented the whole affair from degenerating into situations that were difficult to manage.
In this regard, we asked the Division Admiral (reserve) for an opinion, Nicola De Felice"After the scandalous government behavior in the affair of the fishermen kidnapped in Libya, the Italian strategic perspective must be brought back - willy-nilly - to the sea. For too long Italy has turned its back on the Mediterranean and is now paying the consequences: Franco-German subjection, poor credibility as a decision-making power in neighboring borders, disastrous migration policy, evanescent and unsuccessful foreign policy due to weak governments and ministers afraid of their own shadow. History teaches us that the prosperity, development and well-being of the Italian people is directly proportional to its capacity for deterrence and dissuasion in the seas that surround it. The Turkish naval strategic claims, the Algerian and Croatian brazenness through the unilateral declarations of the Exclusive Economic Zone, Haftar's arrogance in the aforementioned kidnapping are only the latest consequences of a non-existent National Security policy. We need to set strategic objectives, define a winning strategy and quickly get back to the Italian naval and air fleet if we want to give our children a future".
The story of the 18 fishermen in the Mediterranean
On 1 September last, armed militiamen seized off the coast of Benghazi 2 Italian fishing boats with 18 seafarers on board, at 100 nautical miles there was a destroyer of our military fleet the "Durand de la Penne". As reported by the Republic, the Port Authority was warned by the seafarers, at 21,26 the alarm was raised to the Italian military authorities. The Navy replied for hours that it was ready to intervene, asking the fishermen to slow down, wait for a helicopter and then for the ship. The Navy that night, however, had to give up the intervention. In the following days, Minister Guerini asked the Navy General Staff for clarification, which in response endorsed the decision of the commander of the “de la Penne” and the Naval Squadron. The intervention was judged not possible due to the distance and the danger that it would trigger a reaction against the fishermen.