Renzi pledges 2 billion for national security

(ANSA) - Rome, November 24 - Premier Matteo Renzi on Tuesday presented a far-ranging national security plan in response to the bloody November 13 Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris. "We will allocate two billion euros to (. ..) law enforcement and education - that's one billion for security, one for cultural identity," the center-left premier said. "For every extra euro invested in security, there must be an extra euro invested in culture - Italy's response to terror cannot be solely based on security". The Paris attackers chose "common targets (...) symbols of a generation that has only known peace and freedom. They imagine terror, we will respond with culture," Renzi said.
    The premier said "every cent will not be a cost but an investment if we remember that we are investing in our identity". The premier said Italy will respect EU Stability and Growth Pact rules, but that "the pact of humanity is worth more than the stability pact". As well, the premier said an 80-euro tax credit for the lower income bracket will be extended to "all the women and men working in law enforcement". The 2016 budget will include 150 million euros for cyber security and 50 million for better tools for law enforcement. Another 500 million euros will be earmarked for what Renzi called "an intervention" in the outlying districts of the nation's major cities. Those who say that the terrorist enemy is "outside" rather than inside are the victims of a "mediocre delusion," the premier said.
    Accordingly, these outlying, impoverished urban areas must be "rehabilitated" in a bid to prevent them from becoming possible breeding grounds for fundamentalist resentment and violence. He said the urban rehabilitation projects "must be presented by December 31 and spent in the 2017 solar year". Renzi said the 2016 budget will also allocate 500 million euros to defence spending in order to come up with "an immediate response to strategic demands, not to routine or organisational ones." "We are proud of our troops and will never fail to give them our support," Renzi said.