La Russa and fixes her for the naja

Sometimes they come back. Thing? The bizarre ideas, the militarist fascinations but above all the basic misunderstandings: the belief that in order to mature the “civic sense” and the “duty to help others in need” must go through training in the military. The current president of the Senate, Ignatius LaRussahas been trying for some time – between one push and another, at least since 2008 – to bring some form of “mini-naja”. This time, at the celebrations in Milan organized by the Alpini, he proposed to implement and at the same time overcome a 2019 law on a six-monthly experimental project that never actually became operational. That path included three weeks of practical training: the co-founder of Fratelli d’Italia now intends to modify it, evidently reducing its scope to the training period only, extended however to 40 days.

All voluntary, of course, and it couldn’t be otherwise. There passion for the mandatory, however, never passed to La Russa. “I have prepared, and they will present it, not me because I cannot as president, but a group of senators, a bill to bring this aspect to 40 days even if, I want to be realistic, in the voluntary participation proposal, because today as today make it mandatory it would probably cost more in terms of resources than is possible today – he said – but it is a first step. If we could make that young people between the ages of 16 and 25 they can, if they want, spend 40 days of their summer learning not only love for Italy, love for the country, but civic sense, the duty that each of us has to help others in difficulty , we would have done Italy an enormous service“. Let’s not forget that military service has not been abolished but the calls are suspended since 2005 by virtue of a law which was later superseded by the Military Code of 2010.

The civil service

The first answer, the most natural, is that such a path – civilian and not military, heir to a long tradition of pacifism and conscientious objection – exists and involves almost 60,000 young people between the ages of 18 and 28 a year for projects of all kinds in Italy and abroad: it’s called universal civil service. Perhaps the president of the Senate doesn’t like it very much: too cosmopolitan, perhaps, too much a child of the opposing barricades of the 1970s, too “do-good” some would say. This year they are 71 thousand the places available for 567 intervention programs: let’s hope, rather, that the Meloni government won’t miss the funds available for the 2023 call. We’ll see.

The second objection, already to be raised against the 2019 law which provided for the recognition of 12 university credits, is instead of a philosophical nature: why should anyone who concludes a period of that kind receive benefits at headquarters dpublic competitions, university points, advantages at maturity or other advantages? Does anyone who spends 40 days learning assault techniques or types of war aircraft have any particular merit more than others? And why not recognize those who work in NGOs or voluntary associations? Don’t you perhaps learn “civic spirit” and the “duty to help others in difficulty” even with that job?

This has in fact guaranteed La Russa. “I believe that ways can be found to encourage this voluntary participation – explained the president of the Senate again – that of have scores for those who do the competitionsto offer scores for those who must graduatethat of offering a grade for those who have to graduate“. To then conclude by evidently returning to his point of view: “One way to incentivize is just waiting for a wider participation to be imagined semi-mandatorylet’s call it that“.

Let’s call it that, which is perhaps clearer: the proposal smells like a first step to reintroduce a form of lever maybe in a light sauce, shorter and broader in programs and objectives, voluntary but not too much. In short, a full-fledged mini-naja enriched by some completely unjustified benefits. Moreover, against the opinions of even a part of the military world which instead asks to invest on other fronts also with regard to more solid recruitment channels.