It cannot be said that the Legambiente activists thought of Governor Nello Musumeci or Silvio Berlusconi when yesterday they released the data on the state of abandonment of Sicilian houses. There are 375 buildings in poor and mediocre condition, heralded throughout Italy a few days before the elections. Not at all a good calling card for the centre-right, the coalition which wrested Sicily from the centre-left five months ago and which wants to reconquer Palazzo Chigi. The environmentalist Treno Verde – in collaboration with Ferrovie dello Stato – from Syracuse denounced that on the island 1 out of 4 buildings (over 26% of the housing stock) does not guarantee livability and safety. The sad observation of a battered environment, a mirror of a speculative, businesslike Italy, in antithesis with any idea of sustainability.
Silvio Berlusconi after announcing it, tried to do an about-face on the hypothesis of building amnesty, in the event that his coalition were to win the elections next Sunday. An unconvincing reverse, given the precedents of his governments, but above all because in his team today there are those who believe that amnesties and regularizations are the right answer to ancient problems. What, on the other hand, cannot go unnoticed are the overall numbers of the Italian housing stock, even if they are of interest to builders and businesses. From Lombardy to Sicily there are 11,9 million residential buildings – 79,3% of the total – with 30,6 million homes. More than 2 million are in a state of evident backwardness. A 17% of the total that makes headlines when it collapses or when someone thinks of "facilitating" renovations and fake embellishments.
Can hundreds of thousands of families really believe in sly electoral operations, without being guaranteed the right to houses in compliance with the law and urban planning regulations? This is an insidious passage compared to a voluntary census, reliable on the territory and to the popular will that will be expressed through the vote of 4 March. No matter how many mistakes the center-left in power has committed (not just the central government), there is a prevailing need for a synthesis that brings together values, territorial defence, sustainability, capital, in an advanced perspective. The exact opposite of "we heal what we have found by law". Generally speaking, the housing stock belongs to the community. A city is ugly and unlivable for everyone, not just for those who have committed abuses, tolerated them or intend to do so.
In the 80s, to remedy the ugliness, recovery plans were approved with public funds. The result was rehabilitation projects, investments, employment and energy efficiency. The state of conservation of the buildings, says Legambiente today, is inversely correlated with the age of the buildings. Much of it was done over a long period of time and up until the early 90s. Any person with common sense understands that no form of amnesty can do justice to such mediocrity housing. It would be an inconclusive effort, laden with criticism and wiles of all kinds. Surely we wouldn't give a hand to the hundreds of honest administrators who try to bring order to the Municipalities and protect the safety of those who live in "rude" houses. After all, I think it's enough to study the numbers of the Green Train carefully.
