Revoke or not the concession to Autostrade? The Government got off to a flying start on Sunday evening with unequivocal statements by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte who, after an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers in Genoa, announced that "we cannot fail to start the revocation of the concession" after the tragic collapse of the Morandi Bridge which cost the lives of a dozen victims. But yesterday, after the belated awareness of the dispute that the revocation would entail a penalty of 20 billion to be paid by the State, the Government's reversal began with a dispute between the leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, and that of the Five Stars, Louis DiMaio.
It was Salvini who imposed the turning point. Aware of the gigantic litigation that the State would face if it decided to revoke the concession in the absence of an investigation that identifies with certainty those responsible for the Genoa disaster, Salvini preferred to hear the CEO of Atlantia, Giovanni Castellucci, who controls Autostrade, and then establish the stakes of the compromise, even at the cost of disowning Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio who had publicly declared themselves for the revocation of the concession. "Let's find a solution in the interest of the victims, the Genoese and the Italians" said Salvini who fixed the requests to Autostrade in three points to avoid revocation: 1) 500 million for making the network safe and other immediate interventions; 2) very tight deadlines (from 4 to 6 months) for the reconstruction of the Morandi bridge; 3) construction at the expense of Autostrade of alternative housing for those who have lost their homes following the collapse of the bridge.
“They gave us the names of the culprits who have to pay. The rest does not interest us,” added the leader of the League. But Di Maio did not take it well: "The government's position is that those who do not want to revoke the concessions must pass over my corpse". But even Grillo's Minister of Infrastructure, Danilo Toninelli, seemed to be paving the way for the sensational about-face when he ordered Autostrade to submit a detailed report within 15 days to demonstrate that it had done everything possible to prevent accidental events and to cover the costs of the disaster, except proceed with the revocation of the concession, but only "if the conditions exist".
It is not the only step backwards by the Five Stars which, after making fun of the risks of the Morandi Bridge for years, yesterday distanced themselves from the No Gronda, i.e. from the movement which has always opposed the creation of a link road around Genoa as an alternative to the Bridge Morandi.
