It was supposed to return to the Region's heritage as early as 2008: the Sant'Elia hill, with the Sant'Ignazio fort at the top and, further down, the Calamosca lighthouse, was a jewel in the crown of military assets declared immediately disposable on the basis of a State-Region agreement.
Instead, now the company Difesa Servizi Spa, which is part of the Ministry of Defense and was created to generate revenue (for Rome) from military assets, has issued a tender to place a field of photovoltaic panels right there, on a declared 37-hectare plot of land, declaring an estimated value of the operation of 26,940,856.25 euros. A silicon front with a view of the Golfo degli Angeli. The operation is called Energia 5.0, it concerns other areas with stars throughout Italy and the general, national business amounts to 768,178,468.75 euros.
<p>The minutes </p>Only on this side of the Tyrrhenian Sea there seems to be a problem of ownership on that strip of panoramic land. Just go back in time, and in the documents, and you come across the agreements signed by Renato Soru president and Enrico Letta undersecretary. Region and State that had dealt with the resignation of easements. Then there are even "early delivery reports" signed with the State Property Agency and with the Section of the Military Engineers for the Navy of Cagliari as counterpart, which state: the Region is handed over (...) "the area called "Fortino di S. Ignazio" - located in Cagliari in the Colle S. Elia area, listed in the Land Registry on Sheet 27 of the Census Municipality of Cagliari, with a surface area of approximately 495,780 square meters". The hill of Sant'Elia that Difesa Servizi now wants to make profitable, taking advantage of the sun, entrusting it to private individuals ready to invest.
The news became public knowledge. And controversy erupted.
"The inclusion in the tender specifications of the 37 hectares of military land on the Cagliari hill of Sant'Ignazio a Sant'Elia compromises what was already started by the State-Region agreement signed in 2008 between the then President of the Region Renato Soru and the Undersecretary of State to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers Enrico Letta, which provided for the return to the Region of Sardinia of 350 state-owned military properties, including the sites that were the subject of the aforementioned tender", attacks the President of the Regional Council, Piero Comandini, who adds: "An agreement subsequently strengthened by President Francesco Pigliaru and the Minister of Defense Roberta Pinotti. Therefore, no photovoltaic park should or can be built in those areas already destined to become part of the regional heritage".
Comandini wrote to the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, and invited «the representative of the national government to respect the agreements and, in order to protect the autonomist prerogatives of Sardinia, to intervene, with the utmost urgency, with the Agenzia Difesa Servizi Spa so that the aforementioned sites, falling within the municipality of Cagliari, are removed from the list of state-owned assets put out to tender. Those lands must return to the availability of the Sardinians». The president specifies in the letter that the inclusion of the Sant'Elia lands in the tender specifications «also goes against Article 14 of the Special Statute for Sardinia, which clearly states that “the Region, within its territory, succeeds to the assets and patrimonial rights of the State of a real estate nature and to those of state-owned property”».
The battle for the return of the hill has been going on for decades. And Gianni Aramu, a member of Comipa (Joint Joint Committee on Military Easements), but also the civilian leader of the control room that took over the easement dossier at the end of the previous legislature, knows this well: «The obstacle to the decommissioning put up by the Defense», he explains, «was the definition of the borders and the cadastral parcels. But during the last meeting it was considered overcome. The problem of the lighthouse was also raised, declared decommissionable and never returned. Here», concludes Aramu, who has been dealing with military easements for decades, «there is a pillar that cannot be torn down: Article 14 of the Statute. It is enough to apply that. And make your voice heard by those who often think they can get around it».