On the new bridge in Genoa, can the government save face at the last minute?

Two years of uncertainty to find oneself facing the new bridge with a surreal situation: assigned to Autostrade, the same dealer that managed the collapsed one. And it is difficult to get out of the impasse without damage

The Morandi bridge after the collapse of August 14, 2018 (photo: ANDREA LEONI / AFP / Getty Images) It was not difficult to imagine such a humiliation. That is, to arrive on the eve of the inauguration of the new Genoa bridge designed by Renzo Piano and built in record time on the rubble of the Morandi collapsed on August 14, 2018 without having unraveled the node of the motorway concessions. A dossier, like many others opened on the government table, which should have been closed within the past year. First the turbulence over the budget law, then those over the holding of the majority, finally the monstrous crisis for the epidemic swept away every deadline and every urgency, leading us to a surreal appointment, however technically obliged: the delivery of the brand new viaduct to the same dealer who managed the one collapsed with the lives of 43 people and the fate of half Liguria. Theater stuff of the absurd.

A step temporary but unbearable for the relatives of the victims but in the end, for anyone to conserve a little bit of love for the good sense and national dignity (among other things, in Italy there is never to be trusted of the temporary solutions) that s i may, however, avoid at the last minute . Why is the minister of Infrastructure, Paola De Micheli, dem, at the beginning of June has started the forced path now besieged by the 5-Star, wants to change the “ decree of Genoa ” and to deliver the work to the commissioner, Marco Bucci, mayor of the ligurian capital. Do not, therefore, to Autostrade per l'italia. We will see if he is able quickly: the bridge must be opened before the 14th of August, less than two years after the tragedy. But we have to say that the M5S has ruled a year abundant first in a new government with the Pd and nothing got in the phase of the majority of the yellow & green. The ox pentastellato that says cuckold to the donkey democratic.

Probably is that the most suitable route: any what do you think about Giuseppe Conte, it would be nothing short of miraculous if after two years of substantial propaganda on the point – this is done by almost all the parties – in the week, we arrive at a revocation definitive. It would be an acceleration almost impossible. You don't change a shareholder to a company which has been shuffled the cards on the table (the decree "Milleproroghe" of last January, has modified the terms of any compensation in case of revocation from 23 to 7 billion according to estimates) in the space of a night. And it remains to be seen if the Aspi, a subsidiary to 88% by Atlantia to his time in the hands of the holding company of the Benetton family, will accept at the end of drop below 51%, by selling shares to Cassa Depositi e Prestiti or the fund F2i. In short, every move is still possible and that the solutions “ad horas” that he hopes the lawyer does not seem at all behind the corner, less than a tear historic .

The space, tight but certainly passable, however, it might be there: in fact, it seems it's open to the decision of the Constitutional Court, which has rejected the ordinances of the regional administrative court of Liguria, giving reason to the government and bocciando the issues of constitutionality raised by the administrative courts in the ligurian on the exclusion of Aspi from the reconstruction . In short, “ the exceptional gravity of the facts ” allowed the executive to approve that decree and take out the dealership from jobs, requiring at the same time to pay them, as well as expropriations. Those processes will end up on a dead end, and at the same time the pronunciation of the See delivery to Count a heavy paper to play with Atlantia: or accepted the majority of the public, a substantial investment plan and maintenance, and the cut of the tolls or a farewell. The blow to the figure of the president of the Council would be untenable: it would end up to be the premier, who has returned to a collapsed bridge to those who had him in protection when it is collapsed, taking down all of those lives.

too bad the paper the government had already in hand: it was, precisely, constituted by the drama of the collapse, the pain of the dead, by the enormity of an event like that was asking for clarity and political credibility. And instead has given birth to demagoguery in the immediate and short-made in the medium term, resulting in the embarrassing node these days. “ Beyond the checks penalties that will make the judiciary with its investigation, " said the count, on the 15th of August of 2018 – we can't wait for the times of Justice . The Government, in the act of arranging new concessions, will be much more rigorous in the evaluation of the clauses. We are going to review the service contracts to make more stringent constraints ”. Words in the wind, in addition, that dangerous: in the end, with the investigation that is not yet arrived to the preliminary hearing and the granting firm two years ago, it was a race to those who moved less and the story is sunk in the slime.

Only the reconstruction of the bridge, and, as always, the decision of the Court, which takes too often the chestnuts from the fire to the fragile Italian political, have shaken the question. Too little and too late: no matter what happens now it will be a solution to half both for justice and for the administration of three thousand kilometers of our highways.