Of Fulvio Scaglione

Source: linkiesta
The new one, yet another crisis in Libya, with the government of Fayez al-Sarraj on the brink of the abyss due to the attack by rebel militias, It has a very complicated outline, which includes historical rivalries between tribes, the role of Gaddafi's former hierarchs, the sharing of oil revenues, the interference of a long series of countries ranging from the USA to Great Britain, from France to Italy, from Russia to Egypt, from Türkiye to Qatar.
But the substance, at least in the reality of recent years, it's much much simpler: there is a very weak and almost impotent Government, the one led by Al-Sarraj, which acts under the auspices of the United Nations and is recognized by the international community; and there is a country, the France, who works for that Government to fall, even at the cost of plunging Libya back into total chaos.
Emmanuel Macron did his part when, last July, he called a unilateral summit to bring together Al-Sarraj and his sworn enemy, the former Gaddafi and former CIA general Khalifa Haftar, with the obvious result of delegitimizing the first and legitimizing the second. And he's still doing it, given that the moralizing militias (they say the Government is corrupt, think about that pulpit) they went on the offensive between our Prime Minister Conte's trip to Washington, where Donald Trump had gone so far as to propose an Italian-American "control room" for Libya, and the conference on Libya organized in Rome for 10 November. His plan is clear: eliminate Al-Sarraj and go to those elections in December that no one except him wanted and which would end up crowning a vassal of Paris.
The substance of this conflict is very very simple: there is a very weak government, the one led by Al-Sarraj but recognized by the international community. And there is a country, the France, who works for that Government to fall, even at the cost of plunging Libya back into total chaos. Macron's plan is clear: eliminate Al-Sarraj and go to those elections in December that no one except him wanted and which would end up crowning a vassal of Paris: Khalifa Haftar.
Macron, but, he merely continues on the path traced by his predecessors. From the corrupt and criminal Sarkozy, that in 2011 he promoted the destruction of Gaddafi's Libya (and Libya tout court, as we have seen) also to get rid of the Italian-Libyan Treaty signed in 2008 and the pre-eminence of Eni (which it exported 267 thousand barrels of crude oil per day against the 55 thousand of the French company Total) in the Libyan oil market. And also by the inept and bifurcated Hollande, who told the UN that he wanted to support Al-Sarraj's government but in 2015 he was caught supplying weapons to General Haftar and giving him help, in actions against the legitimate Government, with the French special forces located in the Benina base.
It's the good old colonialism of the past, nothing new. Which risks taking the country down a few more steps, when it was controlled by a horrible dictator, it was one of the most developed in Africa while since we Westerners brought democracy to it it has been an inexhaustible hotbed of war and human trafficking.
How it will end up there is, at the moment, impossible to say. Libya, with his militias, It's a Pandora's box, easy to open and difficult to close. You can't see it, but, how the current insurrection that, let's repeat it, has been preparing for a long time, can improve things, especially for the Libyans. We could though, while we try to figure out how it will end, abandon ourselves to some easy reflection.
The first is this: whoever governs Italy, however you govern it, whether he relies on Gentiloni's persuasive tones or Salvini's invectives, whether it's oil or immigration, has a natural and inevitable opponent in France. Mediterranean solidarity, European unity, faith in democracy... It's all lies, France looks after its own interests to our detriment. We want to take note of it?
Whoever governs Italy, however you govern it, whether he relies on Gentiloni's persuasive tones or Salvini's invectives, whether it's oil or immigration, has a natural and inevitable opponent in France. And Macron is a true nationalist and sovereignist, other than Di Maio and Salvini
Second: there are a lot of people, in Italy, who idolizes Macron and believes him not only to be a pro-European but a President attached to collective institutions and international legality.
The good Nicola Zingaretti, candidate for secretary of the Democratic Party, he was almost lynched for daring a timid criticism of Macron. Why all this happens remains a mystery, one of those forms of collective hallucination that we hear about every now and then and that we will tell about to our grandchildren. Macron is a true nationalist and sovereignist, other than Di Maio and Salvini. And it's fantastically populist, a master at saying something that sounds good (Europe, unit, equality, freedom, pepper apple!) and do anything that would sound bad (my business and to hell with everything else). You knew it.
Third: all those who, certainly in excellent faith, in this last period they have been at pains to highlight all the flaws of the Al-Sarraj Government, that treats migrants badly, doesn't bring the coast guard etc. into line. ecc., they are optimistic about what is happening? Certainly not. So here's a good lesson. We didn't like Gaddafi, after him an earthquake. We didn't like Al-Sarraj and it's not like we ruined ourselves to help him, if he falls after him someone will spread salt on the ruins of the earthquake. Request: it's not that the world would be better if we stopped wanting to improve it?