"How can a state without technicians manage highways?“: asked the emeritus jurist of the Constitutional Court, Sabino Cassese, during an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore, anything but tender in the face of the hypotheses of nationalization of Autostrade supported above all by the Five Stars.
"Let's not forget - adds Cassese - in what conditions the Salerno-Reggio Calabria line was and is, which is directly managed by the State".
After the tragic collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, the investigations of the investigators continue to ascertain how and why and who is to blame for a tragedy that cost the lives of 43 people. The Guardia di Finanza has acquired new videos which show the breakage of a tie rod, but the Chief Prosecutor of Genoa, Francesco Cozzi, has announced that at the moment there are no suspects.
In the meantime, the government is going its own way and in Corriere della Sera Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte asks Autostrade to pay at least four times as much as it has offered (half a billion euros). In any case, after the extraordinary Council of Ministers that has already allocated new resources to manage the road and transport emergency, the Executive is thinking of the future. There is talk of massive investments in infrastructure and security, but also and above all of nationalization. The latter hypothesis, however, does not seem to see the two "heads" of the Government in agreement.
The Minister of Infrastructure Danilo Toninelli he does not seem to have changed his mind on his proposal which, according to him, would bring "revenues and margins back to the state through tolls, to be used to strengthen the quality of services and the safety of our roads". His ministry has already sent Autostrade per l'Italia (whose board of directors is meeting today) the letter of objection announced in recent days, "giving" the company 15 days to provide the related counter-arguments in relation to the collapse of the bridge .
The vice premier of the League also apparently agrees Salvini: “Nationalization? Looking at the financial statements, I answer yes: I'm not for and against Autostrade or Benetton. I'm not against private individuals, but in this case the private sector has made a disaster. What we will do will be dictated not by a desire for revenge but for justice".
The undersecretary to the presidency of the Council, on the other hand, is holding back on the nationalization hypothesis, Giancarlo Giorgetti who says he is "not convinced" by the idea, while the hypothesis appears out of the question for Forza Italia.
In an interview given to Sun 24 Hours he is the professor Sabino Cassese, judge emeritus of the Constitutional Court to invite calm and reflection on a choice that could radically change the face of the Italian motorway network. And not for the better.
The constitutionalist recalls that the old Anas built and tested the Genoa-Savona line. Management then passed to Autostrade. Nationalizing would mean giving everything back into the hands of the new Anas. "In that case - explains the professor in the interview given to the Confindustria business daily - there would be the paradox that the motorway returns to the hands of whoever built it".
Cassese then focuses on two other important topics: the results obtained by the public and private sectors and the resources that the former, unfortunately, no longer has. “Let's not forget that the construction of the Autostrada del Sole, carried out by the Autostrade company, is considered one of the great successes of Italian entrepreneurship, in particular of Cova; 755 kilometers of motorways built in less than eight years, on a very difficult orographically difficult territory”, explains the judge. And the state? "Let us not forget, however, in what conditions was and is the Salerno-Reggio Calabriaunder the direct management of the state.
But the far from encouraging example of the Salerno-Reggio is not the only thing on which we should reflect, according to Cassese: "The Ministry of Public Works - now of Infrastructure and Transport - first saw the escape of the technicians ( the historian Guido Melis has documented this phenomenon), then had the final blow with the institution of the regions, in 1970, when the Civil Engineers, which had done so much good in the past, dissolved”.
“How can a state without technicians manage highways?” – asks Cassese – So, first a twenty-year cure, to restore capacity to the State, to reward employees abused by the "spoils system", to incentivize the best".
Meanwhile
