Probably this is not the thread where to discuss this, however... this topic spans across so many threads that none would suffice to contain it in its entirety.
It occurred to me that to understand the whole scenario of this current italian crisis we have take into consideration (of course!) oil and gas.
Most italians are not even remotely aware of the fact that
the war of succession in Libya had, as one of its primary targets, Italy itself: as soon as foreign powers smelled how the unreliability, dishonesty, mafia-style conduct of Berlusconi had weaken the country on all fronts, they jumped in and managed to steal from Italy its number 1 partner in the Mediterranean.
In fact, not only Libya was the first provider of crude oil for Italy, it also had billions of euros invested in Italy in various crucial infrastructural companies, through the Gaddafi family. (Who owns those shares now? The citizens are not being told).
It has been proved, albeit not in tribunals, that behind the
Ustica "accident" in 1980 was France, and the efforts of France to kill Gaddafi and his partnership with Italy. Only, back then Italy knew a little better how to defend its interests, for better and for worse.
Today Italy already depends largely on France for its supply of electrical energy...
(This doesn't mean Sarkozy, who had such a crucial role in the libyan war and finished with it what Mitterand had started 30 years earlier, is really working in the best interest of France let alone the EU, but, more likely, he is working in the interest of the foreign powers that he represents.)
But this is not all: pushing Iran to isolation, as we read these days might be happening, forcing Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz and the export of oil from the country to try and have some leverage, would be
a second major blow to Italy, because
Italy (with Spain and Greece) is a big, major importer of Iranian oil.
http://rt.com/news/iran-oil-sanctions-market-321/
All these Arabian crescent wars seem to have, in fact, as a secondary target the stability and unity of the EU...
Another famous, horrific, strange "accident", that, hear hear, involved in 1991 an italian ferry,
the Moby Prince,
also involved a tanker loaded with Iranian oil, in the Livorno harbor.
Finally, we read these days that Gazprom has decided to cut the supplies of gas to Europe and specifically to Italy, and so the country is running low on reserves.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162- ... ical-soon/
Russia, Iran, Libya, the south of the Mediterranean. Since the times of Aldo Moro, and one of the reasons why Moro had to be taken out (see
this thread), Italy has had the wrong friends, at least according to someone. Not that the italian citizens had ever any clear perception of any of this, lost as they were and are in their right-left disputes and the soccer matches and Berlusconi's TV.
But it is not hard to do the math. Now we have Monti and Monti too is on foreign payroll. It is really difficult to think of Italy as an authentic, political reality these days -- and maybe this is how the future will be: not just for Italy.