Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho

STATE OF EXCEPTION AND IMPASSE DYNAMICS
Emanuele Bottazzi
ISTITUTO DI SCIENZE E TECNOLOGIE DELLA COGNIZIONE
CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE
TRENTO, ITALIA
THOUSANDS OF TROOPS ARE CURRENTLY BEING DEPLOYED IN ITALIAN CITIES.,
They patrol alongside state and paramilitary police and guard “sensitive
sites”. Military forces are able to stop, search and identify suspects. With
the explicit intent to help police fight crime, boost security and curb
illegal immigration, these new measures have been enacted through
an emergency decree issued in May 2008 by the government and then,
after two months, converted into the law (July 25, 2008, n.125). Secure
Streets – that is the name of the “temporary” operation inscribed in
this legal framework – was renewed on May 2009 and is valid until
the end of December 2010.
If we add that some of these troops were previously employed in
war zones such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia [1] , it is difficult not
to say that we are now moving a step forward towards a full state of
exception. As a result it is not a mere accident that nowadays, as it was
235
STATE OF EXCEPTION AND
IMPASSE DYNAMICS
Emanuele Bottazzi
1
Interview with the undersecretary of defense Guido Crosetto, in Brega (2008). In this
framework it is interesting to notice that the Italian Ministry of Defense is promoting
several initiatives with the aim of transferring knowledge on counterinsurgency from
the several international war scenarios in which Italy has been involved into its own
national borders (La Rosa, 2009; Coticchia, 2009).