This time the "little hand" acted with surgical precision. A millimetric intervention, a single number replaced at the last moment, a "thirty" that becomes "ninety". A move capable of opening up even more disturbing scenarios on the nuclear shadow that once again stretches over Sardinia. An electoral political blitz that conceals transversal and underground sides, a radioactive lobby capable of planning the final objective in every detail. The plan to create the Single Repository of nuclear waste, a billion-dollar project desired by the businessmen of the atom to be decommissioned, between waste and decommissioning , travels quickly through the parliamentary halls. The Chamber of Deputies voted on the Energy decree on 26 January, the Senate of the Republic will do so at least one day before the expiry of the sixty days needed to convert the decree into law, on 9 February.
Armored decree
Legislative package already closed and armored, impossible, barring last-minute reversals, to modify it. The Montecitorio chamber took just the time to prevent the Senate from making further corrections during the work. The change to article eleven of the law, the one relating to the storage of radioactive waste, is marked by a legislative change that must have belonged to the apparently insignificant ones. Far from it, however. It is, in fact, an amendment of the "theoretical" opposition to the Meloni Government, that of the exponents of Action, approved by the majority and not only. The correction device is stuff for legislative engineers: «In paragraph 1, letter c), number 2), paragraph 5-bis, second sentence, replace the words: within thirty days with the following: within ninety days».
Hand strike
Not the stuff of simple calendar enthusiasts, but rather the parliamentary convergence of "passionate" calculators of electoral deadlines and political convenience. That hidden change, the deadlines extended from thirty to ninety days to allow the Ministry of Defense to nominate military bases, 65% of which are located in Sardinia, as places to build the single radioactive waste repository, is much more than a coup . It doesn't take much to summarize the low blow: Sardinia is the only region that will go to the vote on February 25th. In the first and original draft of the decree-law launched by the Meloni Government on 9 December last, "30 days" were foreseen to allow the Ministry of Defense to "voluntarily" and "autonomously" propose military sites and ranges to "host" the single radioactive waste. A true "militarization" of the nuclear issue, a sort of "coup" capable of taking away the power to govern the territory from democratic institutions, Municipalities and Regions. Thirty days originally taken from the moment of republication by the Ministries of the Environment and Economic Development of the map of sites suitable for receiving waste. The list of potential locations, in fact, appeared on the Ministry's website on December 13th. In practice, given that the decree-law in its original draft is in force for sixty days, until parliamentary conversion, the deadlines for the candidatures of the polygons would have expired on 13 January. By that date, therefore, the Ministry of Defense should have transmitted both to the Ministry of the Environment and to Sogin, the "nuclear arm" of the State, the military sites candidates for the construction of the "mausoleum" of radioactive waste. To date, however, it is not known whether, based on the January 13th deadline, the state "stars" have advanced some favorite areas or not. One thing is certain, even if the candidacy had been formalized, it was kept secret. Not even a draft from the "war palaces". A disturbing silence, as well as the extension of that deadline to "ninety days". It is all too clear that this delay in timing allows the majority parties, and not only them, to "skip" the Sardinian regional elections, omitting a "danger" of no small importance, which can be summarized with an essential question: the storage of radioactive waste is destined for military bases in Sardinia? The time change approved by the Chamber, and now close to final approval by the Senate, from thirty to ninety days, moves the hands of the "nuclear waste clock" to next March 13, with the Sardinian regional elections already "consummated" . A key passage that risks putting Sardinia in check and with their backs to the wall. The nuclear depot is, in fact, as can easily be deduced, a decisive factor against development, given the damage and heavy image conditioning that would weigh on the tourist perception of the Island. The inclusion of the Sardinian military ranges among the possible sites destined to host the radioactive deposit further aggravates the position of the island, which has already jumped to the top of that "cursed" map of sites declared suitable to accommodate the waste. As if those 14 Sardinian municipalities already identified in the map first launched by the Conte Government and then confirmed by the Meloni government were not enough, now, in the scenario of potential sites, all the Sardinian military bases are in fact included, for a good 35 thousand hectares. From the 12 thousand hectares of the Salto di Quirra range to the 7,200 of Teulada, from the phalanx of Capo Frasca to the arsenal of Santo Stefano, on the island of La Maddalena. With an unparalleled military "occupation" of the Sardinian territory there is a serious danger that the Ministry of Defense could decide to indicate one of the ranges located on the island.
Militarization
A "militarization" of these sites that would totally cut off the Sardinian democratic institutions from decisions, delegating a serious and unacceptable decision to "stars" and the Government, if only for the autonomistic and constitutional Specialization in the field of "Territorial Government". A primary competence trampled upon without a shot being fired and which should be challenged by the Region without even waiting for the next deadline of 13 March. In fact, with this Government decree, no procedure for involving the Region is envisaged, nor with the "hearing" formula, much less with that of the "agreement", causing a very serious constitutional violation of the statutory provisions which attributed to the Region the primary competence precisely in the «Government of the territory».
Failure to appeal
Failure by the Sardinian Region to challenge this decree in a timely manner, which will be definitively passed in the first ten days of February, will leave the dispute open to the next regional legislature, leaving a glimpse, however, of a silent assent from the current Sardinian Government on this obvious constitutional violation. An affair, that of nuclear waste in Sardinia, which involves, in one way or another, all the political forces involved in the electoral dispute for the next regional elections. A chronology of responsibilities that leaves no escape for the contenders: from the first map of Sardinian sites launched by the Five Star Government and the Democratic Party in January 2021, to the one confirmed by the current Meloni Government in December 2023, to arrive at the "prisoner" amendment of the very Italian Action aligned with Rifondazione Comunista in support of the former Pd Soru. It is clear that, faced with such an important event as the vote for the future President of the Region and the renewal of the Regional Council, postponing the choice and communication of the military site to be proposed "voluntarily" until after the elections of 25 February is a very serious matter, both on a moral and political-institutional level.
Decide today, not later
Now that that nuclear-surgical "hand" has been discovered, it would be correct that, in broad daylight and without subterfuge, with concrete and tangible actions, the unconstitutionality of that "military" rule be acknowledged. At the same time, without frills, the Island should be immediately excluded from that "nuclear plan", without any ifs or buts. The Sardinians, moreover, have already expressed themselves without half measures: never in Sardinia.
