In Emilia Romagna, the center-right has unanimously expressed itself against the appointment of Stefano Bonaccini as commissioner for reconstruction after the floods. It was only a vote against a motion of the Democratic Party in the regional council, but it shows the discontent that has also mounted in Rome in recent days over the hypothesis that Palazzo Chigi wanted to entrust the position to the governor. An increasingly difficult scenario, admit executive sources. It is a tug of war that everyone wanted to avoid and that instead is raising the tension in the Rome-Bologna axis, while in the Region the damages are beginning to be counted, “more than 7 billion”.and prepare to receive the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, who will fly over the flooded areas on Thursday together with Giorgia Meloni and Bonaccini himself.
They will take off from Bologna in the early afternoon and on the way back there will be a press point. Then, while Bonaccini and von der Leyen will continue by helicopter to Cesena and Forlì, the prime minister (who was also in the flooded areas on Sunday) will return to the capital. for a Council of Ministers convened at 6:00 p.m. Two days after the one that launched measures and aid for “more than two billion euros.” That text is still being defined, several articles are being verified in the latest drafts.
Up to 900 euros will be allocated to displaced families, announced the Minister of Civil Protection, Nello Musumeci. The new meeting “will have to make more decisions on the management of the emergency in the areas affected by bad weather,” announced the Chigi Palace. On the agenda at the moment there are only “miscellaneous and possible”. The state of alarm should be extended to the municipalities of Marche and Tuscany affected by the wave of bad weather, but there are those who do not rule out new measures. Difficult, if not impossible, to proceed with the appointment of the reconstruction commissioner, although the idea is spreading in the center right that in the end an area technician will be chosen. “It is not on the agenda, we are still in the emergency phase -Musumeci clarified in Parliament-. Normally the emergency phase lasts one year, at least this is the period that I have foreseen in the ordinance”.
From the territory, however, there is strong pressure, a request to hurry, like after the 2012 earthquake, when the Monti government took ten days to accuse the then governor Vasco Errani, as a result of the second destructive clash. The vice president of Emilia Romagna, Irene Priolo, delegate of Civil Protection, spoke of damages of “more than 7 billion” pending a precise estimate. The 2,000 million that the government allocates go mainly to companies, but soon it will be necessary to think about infrastructure. After listening to Meloni yesterday at Palazzo Chigi, together with the mayors and social partners of the region, expressing his satisfaction with the first responses provided by the government, Bonaccini in Bologna at the Regional Council used decidedly more peremptory tones. “We need immediate resources to rebuild the roads, block the landslides, restore the embankments. We need to do these things before the fall, otherwise, he warned, not an extraordinary event but an ordinary one is going to get us into trouble. With these times and with these levels of detail, is it possible that these works can be designed, contracted and built by a commissioner in Rome?
Then, the president of the Democratic Party stressed that “generally a regional president is appointed as commissioner, as center-right colleagues like Zaia, Occhiuto, Toti say.” And he added: “You have to take care of the Romagna, not the political balance of the appointments.” From the League they assure that there is “no veto or antipathy towards anyone” and it is expected “that the appointment will take place as soon as possible”. But more sources than most say that Matteo Salvini’s party is the coldest towards Bonaccini, on the Romagna front line of the FdI. Center-right governors certainly don’t think so. For Liguria’s Giovanni Toti, “the commissioner’s powers should rest with those who have a popular mandate to be able to exercise it with full legitimacy.”
ANSA Agency
Information from Minister Musumeci to the Chamber. Regarding the commissioner’s question, the League specifies: “There is no veto or displeasure for anyone” (ANSA)