Report
ENI is holding ‘security drills’ – to stop environmentalists
‘Instead of worrying about the safety of plants at risk for major accidents (974 throughout Italy) and preventing disastrous incidents like the one in Calenzano, the government is scheduling drills with the special police units to practice stopping a few protesters.’
In the aftermath of the Calenzano tragedy – a massive explosion at an ENI fuel depot on Friday morning that left 5 workers dead and 9 injured – more dismaying news came out about ENI, the Italian energy giant: “security drills” have been organized at some ENI plants, in Gela in early November and in Ravenna in late November, not with the goal of practicing emergency incident response but with that of learning how to deal with pesky environmental protesters.
It’s unclear whether there are more drills planned involving other plants. The Caltanissetta police explained the reasons for the drill in a press statement: “The strategic importance of the ENI energy infrastructure, connected to the different fronts of the current world crisis, makes it one of the critical sensitive targets that must be given heightened attention.”
In Gela, as in Ravenna, the scenario practiced together with the authorities featured a peaceful demonstration at the entrance to the New Oil Center of the Enimed Spa plant in Gela which also included a fringe group of “hostile infiltrators who engaged in a scuffle with security personnel. After stealing weapons from the security workers, the hostiles broke into the New Oil Center, barricading themselves in and taking some employees hostage.” As in Ravenna, the script was followed to the letter.
There is even a video of the exercise on the Interior Ministry's YouTube channel, which looks much like an action movie. The statement from the Ministry reminds viewers that “for the success of the exercise, the contribution of ENI and of its Security department was of key importance, both in the organizational phase and during the conduct of the activity in the field, with a view to security that is shared between the public and private sectors.”
In Ravenna, the exercise also included protesters climbing pylons and hanging protest banners, who had to be taken down and arrested. The Emilia-Romagna branch of Europa Verde called it an “appalling environmentalist witch hunt,” in the context of the growing climate of repression, and demanded explanations from the prefect of Ravenna.
“Why is it deemed more urgent to focus on security understood as public order instead of the protection of the population (safety) from the possible spread of chemicals harmful to human health and the environment? We would like to recall that the last exercise involving ENI aimed at the safety of the population was in 2018, and was limited to testing the timeliness of communications between the company and the public institutions, i.e. did not feature the deployment of law enforcement. Some of the External Emergency Plans of the 20 plants at risk of a major accident in the province of Ravenna are almost 20 years old. Why are they not being updated?” accused Deputy Angelo Bonelli (AVS).
“I am working on a parliamentary question that will be addressed to the Interior and Environment Ministers. This is disturbing. Instead of worrying about the safety of plants at risk for major accidents (974 throughout Italy) and preventing disastrous incidents like the one in Calenzano, the government is scheduling drills with the special police units to practice stopping a few protesters and hypothetical attacks by environmentalists,” the AVS Deputy added.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/la-sicurezza-per-eni-e-difendersi-dagli-ambientalisti on 2024-12-11