Ponte Morandi, silence and respect for the victims of negligence. The urgent interventions of the Government

(by Emanuela Ricci) Today we will remember it forever! Today is the day of silence, that silence that makes noise, that silence that causes pain. Immense pain for the tragedy that struck those who remain crying their loved ones. That's how life ends. This beautiful gift! Today too many smiles are extinguished ... .., the innocent ones ... .., turn off forever. To those who have fallen we address prayers for eternal glory, we can not do anything else. Let us bow to this tragedy.

Victims of negligence, victims of greed, victims of those who do not do their duty, victims of those who did not want to hear complaints. 39 innocent victims, 633 displaced people, dozens of missing people, these are the numbers of a sick system that has failed to intervene in time and avoid an announced massacre. Like a film already seen, when the fact is still hot, the usual promises are made. Starting from scratch, this should be the watchword. Review rules and procedures and then allocate a lot of money for major works.

However, the anger that assails us is given by the fact that we have known for over ten years. The problem of bridges in Italy is known as the hydrogeological and seismic problems, but still not enough has been done by successive governments and local administrations. The real problem is that there is no planning and when you manage to plan something, as soon as a new Government / Territorial Administration takes over, everything goes wrong. The resources allocated are diverted elsewhere, or canceled.

For 10 years there have been ordinary and extraordinary interventions at the Morandi Bridge, a lot of public money spent and many organizations and companies involved. Wouldn't it have been better to build a new, modern and safe one? Now there are two parallel paths to follow, punishing the guilty and making the national mapping of all public infrastructures considered dangerous. Tens of billions of euros to be allocated, abandoning the "imaginative" promises made during the recent electoral campaign. The fear, however, is that after the initial clamor everything can fall into oblivion.

Meanwhile the Autostrade Company said: "we will rebuild in 5 months".

But what did the Government decide immediately?

During the press conference, at the end of the extraordinary Council of Ministers at the Prefecture of Genoa, the premier Giuseppe Conte he reported having "decreed a state of emergency for 12 months and initiated the procedure for revoking the concession to Autostrade companies ". "The Government will appoint a Commissioner and has allocated 5 million for the first urgent interventions". Then he said, "What happened in Genoa is a serious injury not only for the city, but for Liguria and throughout Italy. Unfortunately, as we imagined, the death toll has grown again. A tragedy that unites us all, which leads us to question the causes. What we will launch promptly as Government is an extraordinary plan for monitoring all the infrastructures, especially the older ones. The controls will be very strict because we can not afford other tragedies like this. All citizens must travel safe".

Luigi Di Maio

"The managers have a name and a surname and are Autostrade per l'Italia. After years that it was said that things from private individuals would be managed much better, we find ourselves with one of the most successful European dealerships that tells us that the bridge was safe. These are excuses. Autostrade has to do the maintenance and did not do it. First of all, the summits resign ".

"In the event of non-compliance, it is possible to withdraw the concession and charge fines of up to 150 million. We will draw from extraordinary funds to ensure the viability of citizens, also extending, if necessary, the use of some coastal viaducts. We are studying all the possibilities to make the roads immediately work, because the city is broken in two ", assured Di Maio promising that" we will, as premier Conte has already announced, an extraordinary monitoring plan. It is about installing banal sensors on all the infrastructures of the country for constant monitoring: sometimes it is done with satellites, sometimes with sensors. We will be judged on the facts and in a few months we will verify with the citizens if we will be consequent to what was announced ".

Danilo Toninelli

Autostrade did not carry out any maintenance on the Morandi bridge, we will decree the contracts with motorway concessionaires and we will start the procedures ”for the withdrawal of the concession. “He can run the state. At Autostrade we pay the highest tolls in Europe and they pay very low taxes because they are owned by a Benetton holding company in Luxembourg ", underlined the minister saying" certain "that" the collapse of the Morandi bridge "could have been avoided: the conditions visible to everyone, not an engineer, suggests that maintenance was not done and that is why the bridge collapsed. It did not collapse by accident but because no maintenance was done ”.

On the Toninelli reconstruction he said that “with regard to Genoa, the Civil Protection Emergency Fund will be used to restore ordinary roads, also taking into consideration the possibility of extending the 'Strada a mare' to Voltri. For the reconstruction of the Morandi bridge, which I want to emphasize it had needed maintenance for decades, the resources of Autostrade's economic and financial plan will then be used, to be discussed in September, and other resources not committed and taken from two funds dedicated in part to interventions infrastructural ".

Matteo Salvini

So Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini on twitter and during the press conference, "our duty will be to check all public works reported by mayors and citizens, and identify the culprits of this disaster that will not go unpunished". The revocation of the concessions is the least that can be expected "and observed that" a company, such as the one that manages that stretch of motorway, which makes billions of profits must explain to the Italians why it has not done everything possible to reinvest a part of those useful in safety ".

"A thank you to the hundreds of professionals and volunteers who have been working for help and a prayer for the victims and their families. We will go all the way to ascertain the responsibilities of this huge disaster, "added the Minister of the Interior who promised 1.500 recruitment of firefighters in a year and the commitment to allocate" 12 million euros "to buy vehicles, cars and the instrumentation necessary for the body. We will see to give the first urgent answers. The city can not be blocked. Beyond the dead there is an unimaginable economic and social damage. It is necessary to intervene immediately and urgently.

https://youtu.be/RyoiFVW0hMY

Ponte Morandi, silence and respect for the victims of negligence. The urgent interventions of the Government