The South as a logistics platform: the risk of wasting yet another opportunity

The question is one of the fundamental ones: which dark evil afflicts Italian infrastructure, and in particular those of our South which is rhetorically represented as a platform to the center of the Mediterranean, but which is actually overtaken by the most important maritime traffic and continues to lose ground. 

It is an international and European conspiracy to the advantage of the ports of the North, such as Rotterdam, or it's the fault of our politics which has never been "far-sighted" but which now seems prey to a populist spiral based on an equation like: more fairy tales and slogans, equals more votes. For others, the fault lies entirely in the bureaucracy which produces abstruse rules and which, in any case, even when one manages to get out of the labyrinth, one finds oneself faced with the so-called “signature strike”, to escape from the responsibilities of any bureaucrat. 

Three authors with different specializations have embarked on a dialogue to try to unravel the questions summarized above. The result was an agile volume that is easy to read and of great interest precisely because of the diversity of points of view, published by Guerini e Associati. THEThe dialogue is between Pasqualino Monti, experienced logistics manager, Julius Sapelli economist and historian, e Bruno Dardani, an expert journalist on ports and maritime traffic. The book is entitled, perhaps with a hint of optimism, "Wind from the South, Logistics, infrastructure and market for a new Europe." 

The three authors agree in attributing the main responsibility for the degradation of our infrastructures and the progressive loss of market shares of our ports and our shippers, to politics, and in particular to the parties who, by now deprived of any ideal basis, seek consensus by pursuing all the local instances or pressure groups, even very small ones. This way it was created an oligarchy of “don't do” in order not to annoy anyone, but also to continue to enjoy some positions of income that the "big nothing" creates anyway. We have a totally invertebrate society and politics, in which "rights" dominate while no one talks about “duties” anymore that rights were once inextricably linked. 

It's a bit shocking to read very harsh reviews of Giulio Sapelli on the 5-star rebels who miss the target and have no substitute policies to propose. While they look pretty the criticisms of Europe are ungenerous and to the ECB, which despite great difficulties managed to face the 2008 crisis and the onset of the health emergency in 2020, reacted promptly up to launching an investment policy (the Pnrr) capable of helping countries that are a bit lagging behind in terms of growth and productivity. 

Upon close examination of all aspects of our relative decline, we come to the conclusion that regionalization it was, at least in this field, a serious mistake. Unfortunately, even the money made available by Europe risks being dispersed because there is no real strategy capable of overcoming the various causes that block our growth: cumbersome or unenforceable regulations, excessive localism that ultimately damages the local communities themselves, a strategic vision of the infrastructural connections necessary to divert part of the goods that have to go to Northern Italy from Rotterdam to some southern port. 

Once again the need for a forward-looking policy. Draghi and his government should above all commit to showing Italians a new method of governing. And we hope that Minister Giovannini, who is in charge of logistics, will take into consideration the valuable advice contained in this book.