The Meloni government ready to establish military reservists (with the support of the Democratic Party): 10 thousand to be recalled in case of "emergency"

The long-awaited European and Italian rearmament will not only come from the billions that will be "invested" in armaments, to the delight of companies in the sector, starting with the Italian Leonardo.

The aim of Giorgia Meloni 's government, but supported in this by proposals also put forward by the Democratic Party, is to establish a military reserve .

The announcement, as Repubblica points out, came from the president of the Defense Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Nino Minardo , of the League, who has set July 8 as the start date for the discussion of two proposed laws : the objective of the majority and the opposition is to arrive at a single text that is a synthesis between the one presented by Minardo himself and by the Campania deputy of the Democratic Party, Stefano Graziano .

But what does the Minardo bill provide? The text presents some numbers of the project to establish an Italian military reserve, on the model of what already happens today in neighboring Austria: "The present bill intends to regulate - we read in the text cited by Repubblica - promote and therefore establish, within the Armed Forces, a pool of 10,000 military personnel to be assigned to the auxiliary reserve of the State. This reserve of places would allow the selection, on a voluntary basis, of personnel already trained and educated by the Armed Forces , in fact suitable to be usefully and rapidly mobilized in case of urgent need. The new auxiliary reserve of the Armed Forces would be composed of former soldiers, who have left the service without demerit, who provide their activity, on a voluntary basis, as reservists for five years starting from their discharge, extendable through subsequent renewals".

Reservists who would be bound to certain obligations and duties , including "ensuring their availability, undergoing an annual assessment of their possession of the psycho-physical requirements necessary for recall to service and attending courses, lasting no less than two weeks per year, for training, updating and maintaining the qualifications acquired during the service".

The reservist may be mobilized by the government "in times of conflict or in situations of serious crisis likely to have repercussions on the security of the State, for the defense of national borders, or in the event of a declaration of a state of emergency of national importance by the Council of Ministers".

The model is the Austrian one : in Vienna there is a maximum of 35 thousand reservists obliged to do 30 days of training per year for at least five years and a permit signed by the employer. Obviously for these "emergency troops" there is a compensation of around 6 thousand euros per year.

Other Western countries already have military bodies made up of reservists, with the main and best-known example being Israel : after October 7, 2023 and the attack by Hamas, the army mobilized in a few days about 360 thousand people, almost 4 percent of the population. In the Jewish state, military service is mandatory for 3 years (two for women, the only exempt are ultra-Orthodox Jews) and the reservists are in fact civilians who in daily life carry out professions outside the military sphere, being called up in case of emergencies.

The reservist system also exists in other countries. In the United Kingdom, for example, all citizens aged between 18 and 43 can become reservists, and it is necessary to complete at least 19 days of training per year: Similar systems are also active in Switzerland , where military service is compulsory for men from the age of 18 (for women it is voluntary), in France and in the United States .