(Finance) – Bridging not only the North-South gap, but also the infrastructural gap of the entire country, due to the too long season of “no” votes that have marked the last few years. This is the objective expressed by Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini, spoke today in Rimini at the 44th edition of the Meeting of Friendship among the peoples of CL, which will end next Friday with the speech of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. “The last major public works were carried out thanks to the objective law desired by the centre-right government led by Silvio Berlusconi”, explained Salvini, illustrating to “Il Sussidiario” – the website of the Foundation for Subsidiarity chaired by Giorgio Vittadini – the necessary change of pace undertaken by the Government. On July 25, Salvini presented the main public works between now and 2032. But just a week ago, MIT was accused of remodulate projects for 2 and a half billion, diverting funds destined for the South to the North.
Salvini denies: “False. All the works will be completed, from South to North. In recent months we have done an in-depth analysis of the progress of the various construction sites and we have simply remodeled the financial allocations. I will explain it in a concrete way: we have given funds to the construction sites that needed them already in 2023, transferring them from those works which instead will only start from 2024 and which will obtain all the necessary appropriations at the right time.I remember that I have the honor of leading MIT for about nine months, the center-left that argues has been in the ministry almost continuously over the last decade. It amazes me that now they want to give lessons on works that they evidently have not been able to carry out. No movement of funds from one part of the country to another: with this logic, it means that we should give up some investments and not Furthermore, I would like to remind you that we have relaunched the bridge project over the Strait which will bring at least 100,000 jobs between Calabria and Sicily, and between investments already implemented or planned, has convinced us to plan maxi interventions in the two regions for a total of 75 billion between roads and railways. In Italy we have already activated 4,000 construction sites to improve the circulation of cars and trains. There are 125 billion euros in railway infrastructure alone. The numbers are stronger than any fake news”.
“I remember that most of the money in the Pnrr it is on loan and therefore must be returned. It is important – he said Salvini, speaking in a debate at the Rimini Meeting – spend it all but also spend it well because it is loan money that will pay back our children. Without any vein of controversy if I have to get our children into debt to build stadiums, no matter what. If I have to build nursery schools then that’s fine”. A theme anticipated in the interview on the website of the Foundation for Subsidiarity. “I would like to strengthen the redevelopment interventions in the suburbs and launch a significant housing plan to respond to the housing emergency – said Salvini – . The new Brenner tunnel means longest tunnel in the world by 2032, private company and public participation. We count that the first stone of the bridge over the Strait can be laid in a year and we are convinced that the project, which had already gone through all the technical and bureaucratic steps, just needs to be updated. It will be a green work that will make it possible to clean up a stretch of sea where today there is crazy traffic with relative pollution and discomfort for citizens”. nuclear: “Yes to nuclear power with no ifs, ands or buts. I spoke about it with my government colleagues, I believe it is essential that Italy think seriously about the latest generation of safe and clean nuclear power. Not doing so would mean condemning our children and grandchildren to live in a country constantly in emergency”.
Bridge over the Strait of Messina – “All bridges are important, but the law establishing the Strait of Messina company dates back to 1971. We are at the 52nd birthday of a company that should have built the bridge. It is the most studied bridge in the world without being built. It was gutted by engineers, they will do it. I am proud of the Italian engineers who go to seek their fortune in Germany, China and the United States. The bridge over the Strait will be an opportunity to demonstrate that Italian engineers are the best in the world – said Salvini, at the meeting di Rimini – The bridge has a single span of 3.3 km and has no pylons in the water, it is a green work. It is a link between Palermo-Rome-Milan-Berlin-Stockholm, a work that brings Italy back and the Mediterranean in the center”.
House plan – “A housing plan has been missing for too many years in Italy. It is not possible that in big cities it is not possible for a boy, a student, a worker not only to buy but not even to rent a house – said the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport -. We are working on a new big housing plan, not like we did in the 70s where they said I’ll give you a house in the suburbs and don’t complain if you don’t have services. I think that in 2023 all neighborhoods must have services”.
Flood in Emilia-Romagna – “Doing the impossible is a civic duty so that families can return to their homes and farmers and traders can return to work. In September, the first money must be disbursed to families, municipalities and companies. I have already heard from General Figliuolo – he said said Salvini, at the meeting in Rimini speaking of post-flood reconstruction in Emilia Romagna -. Prevention is better than cure. As a minister, I force myself to listen to everyone, then I take the responsibility of deciding because there have been too many years of not dealing with the stream, don’t dredge the port, don’t cut down the sapling from the river bed because the poor thing suffers. I have to maintain the river banks and I’m sorry if some coypu have built their den in the river bank. The coypu will move because life of man and woman comes first. I move the coypu, I move the little fish, I move the sapling”.
Stability Law – “The priorities are to increase salaries and pensions” by putting “what we will be able to obtain, for example by saving on basic income for those who are not entitled to it, and confirming the levy on bank millionaires’ earnings, increasing salaries and pensions”. The other priority – Salvini said on the sidelines of the Rimini Meeting – is “tax cuts to increase wages and pensions, which means helping families”.