Embracing Qadaffi
The Vatican announced last week that its two year effort to tie diplomatic relations with Libya had finally born fruit making Libya the 265th nation to boast such relations with the Holy See. This is not the first time that relations between the Italic peninsula and Colonel Qadaffi have raised eyebrows and voices from those who establish America’s foreign policy. Libya’s purchase of a 10 percent interest in FIAT for $415 million in 1976 had also ruffled a few feathers at both the State Department and the Pentagon. Even the Italian government has often oscillated its position vis-à-vis Tripoli.
The papal ambassador to Libya will be Jose Sebastian Labo, already nuncio to Malta. The reason for the move is not just to provide a proper figurehead to the 50,000 Christians who reside in Libya, a third of whom are Philippines. The gesture also purports a broader diplomatic mission. According to the Pope’s spokesman, Joaquin Navarro Valls, the Vatican hopes that this initiative will help to promote international dialogue that will keep the country less isolated.
The heir to the throne of Fiat, Gianni Agnelli, had also claimed that it was not so much money but rather diplomacy that had inspired him to allow Qadaffi to purchase 10% of Fiat at three times the price that the Libyan leader would have paid had he bought the shares openly on the Milan stock exchange. The deal had a catch, however. Not only did Libya become the second largest Fiat shareholder after the Agnelli family, but it acquired two seats on the Fiat board of directors and took one of the five seats of the executive committee. Although Agnelli tried to reassure the public that for the Libyans the deal was strictly a financial investment, he must have been quite embarrassed when Qadaffi announced that had he wanted to limit his role to that of a mere investor, he would have bought his shares on the stock exchange. With no veiled words he avowed that the Libyans wanted to intervene in the management of the company.
As for Agnelli’s diplomatic intentions, he claimed that it was his belief that Libya was a nation that was seeking stability. In his opinion, Colonel Qadaffi was helping Libya to bring about an "evolution of democracy." Evidently he felt that bringing the country to the table of the board of directors of a capitalist enterprise would help it even further to "emerge from its isolation" and keep it from becoming a "ghetto." What a noble gesture!
That was in the seventies. By the late eighties it was obvious that Agnelli had overestimated the Colonel’s inclinations toward democracy. As Qadaffi’s name became continually linked to terrorist operations, from the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, in October 1985, to the attack on passenger’s at Rome’s Fiumicino airport, to mention only two, it was obvious that the discomfort of such a partnership was becoming overwhelming. Qadaffi was convinced to sell, and he received his asking price of $3 billion, proving him to be one hell of an investor! However, Agnelli’s willingness to come up with such a sum had little to do with appeasing the Americans for the sake of democratic principles. SNIA, the military sector of the Fiat group, was interested in acquiring Strategic Defense Initiative contracts. The United States had been refusing to assign such "Star Wars" contracts to the Italians as long as the group held such close ties to Qadaffi.
And what has been the attitude of the Italian government in relation to Libya? It often seems to go as the wind blows. The government was perplexed when Fiat made its announcement in 1976. However, at a time when the government was finding difficulties in obtaining a $530 million loan from the International Monetary Fund, Agnelli’s move began to smack of financial genius. With the sum of the Libyan deal representing nearly a quarter of the country’s balance of payments deficit, the inflow of fresh foreign capital was welcome, notwithstanding the dubious source.
It is possible to speculate ceaselessly concerning Italy’s soft spot in its foreign policy dealings towards Libya. A sense of guilt for the former period of colonization? Hardly. Most Italians feel that they contributed a great deal more than they got out of the colonial experience in North Africa and considering the amount of investment in infrastructure, they are probably right. Economics? Certainly during the seventies and eighties petrol was a dominant theme in motivating Andreotti’s policy of good relations with Libya. Security is perhaps the real driving force behind what to Americans may seem like over compliance. It is rather difficult to remain indifferent to the ravings of a mad dictator when he and his planes and his bombs are only a stone’s throw away from the country’s capital.
What conjectures then might be made regarding any ulterior motives driving the Vatican toward this détente with Libya? According to Qadaffi, Islam is much more accepting of Christianity than vice versa. It accepts Christ as a prophet and Islamic couples often name their children Jesus and Miriam in a sign of reverence toward Christ and his mother. As true as this may be in theory, in practice in recent years Islamists have demonstrated far more intolerance of Christianity, than have Christians of Islam. Mosques are to be found in practically every European capital. The same cannot be said for the presence of churches in the Muslim world. During the post war era, Communism was the Church’s and the West’s enemy to reckon with. The common adversary during the post-Communist era seems to be Islamic fundamentalism. Having recently lost terrain to the Muslims in Lebanon, the Church may see its foundation in the Mediterranean at risk. More than embracing Qadaffi, it may be the Pontiff’s intention to safeguard the foothold that the Church has established on Libyan soil as part of an overall strategy to keep from losing any more ground in an area that has historical importance for all three of the major religions.
March 1997
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