Engineer Salvini. Journey inside its Polytechnic, where the Messina Bridge is dreamed of

Foolish who does not believe it, stupid who mocks it. The specialists who took his pulse: “Minister Salvini, yours is bridge sharp”. The Quirinale took it seriously. And in fact on the Bridge Decree he wants to see clearly. Giorgia Meloni is worried: “Matteo, you are pale”. At the Ministry of Transport is now for everyone “the engineer Salvini”. Just go up to the first floor and you will find the model Bridge over the Strait from which Salvini never separates. He even has a keychain. He loves him more than a stuffed animal. At the last CDM he had it with him and he has every intention of taking it with him to the next CDM, Thursday, when he will present the new Procurement Code to his fellow ministers. If Giancarlo Giorgetti doesn’t get him the money (ten billion euros) this is the right time to drown him in Varese, in his lake, and Salvini is right who thinks in his mind: “You had it all, success, glory, and only thanks to me who took the spits. You owe me the bridge. If you don’t give me the money, I’ll ring you at night. I’m chasing you!”

In the Chamber we stop the governor of Abruzzo, Marco Marsilio, a man of FdI. President, in your opinion, will Salvini make it? “You are underestimating him. Only someone as stubborn as him can make the bridge.” The signs of pontitis came on slowly. This is the history. The Meloni government was being formed and Salvini was removed from all offices. At the Interior Ministry? No. Not even Justice. And he? Always silent, alone, misunderstood. They want to take away any ministry like little Kane in Fourth Estate they take off the Rosebud sled. A friend: “That’s how it started and now it’s Ponte fever”. Salvini ends up at MIT. They think they have confined him but instead … The day after his appointment he confides: “A bridge is forever. They wanted to put me on the sidelines of history and I will make a work that will go down in history. It’s my revenge”. Destiny does the rest.

Among his collaborators is Francesco Lucianò, someone who is making his way, indeed, a highway. He is head of the ministry’s technical secretariat. Where was he born? In Reggio Calabria! The project created by the Danes of Cowi A/S and Sund & Belt is recovered in the closets of the MIT. But there are also the Canadians of Bukland & Taylor Ltd and the American Parsons Transportation Group. It’s all an ampersand ‘e’. Meloni ends up in these hours in the controversy over the trade in rented wombs and he, Salvini, is in charge of future commercial bridges. Which of the two is better off?

This last weekend, he ordered the Lega supporters, from land, sea and sky, to launch the membership and to “pump up” the Bridge Decree. The first one who says that it is impossible to build has it torn to pieces by Scylla and Cariddi. Since Salvini knows all the objections including the one, “you think of the bridge but we don’t have roads here”, here he corrects it. Governor Roberto Occhiuto has already sent Calabria three billion euros for Reggio Calabria-Taranto. In Lamezia Terme they venerate it like bergamot.

Who attends the ministry: “It feels like being at the Politecnico di Milano. They all speak in English. Only Renzo Piano is missing”. This statement has been featured on the website for days: “The Italian challenge: the bridge beetween Sicily and Calabria will become a reality”. A real professor is said to roam those rooms. It is Enzo Siviero, rector of the E-Campus, considered “the Kant of the Bridges”, former professor at the Iuav in Venice. He is a candidate to become Papa Ponte. In addition to Siviero, the geoengineer Pietro Lunardi, former Minister of Transport of Forza Italia, another one who had cherished the dream, was seen entering the Salvini Polytechnic.

Because the right, says Peppe Caridi, the director of the Stretto Web site, the Bridge has always wanted it. And the left? “Today is silent”. In Reggio Calabria, the mayor of the Democratic Party, Giuseppe Falcomatà, is suspended. He governs his deputy mayor Paolo Brunetti, of Italia Viva, and the Bridge, obviously, wants it, and how if he wants it. In Messina the “no Ponte” have disappeared. Never was a happier moment for engineers. The only little problems, but they are provincial little problems, concern disputes and contracts. The Quirinale wonders if it is possible to revive the contracts of a company (the Strait of Messina) in liquidation. The prudent ones: “Reviving society presupposes passing away, but there is no passing away”. Salvini: “Find me a solution. You have to take care of the feasibility”. In his latest interviews, Siviero speaks of lands to be expropriated in the coming months. Salvini has already circled the date: July 31, 2024, laying of the first stone.

Every evening in the ministry a light is turned on. On the table, Nietzsche’s book and the highlighted phrase: “The greatness of man is to be a bridge and not a purpose”. To the right is a blackboard. It’s him, Eng. Salvini, with chalk: “Spanning 3,330 meters; 60.4 meters deck width, 2 pairs of cables for the suspension system; 44,323 steel wires for each suspension cable … Giorgetti! Money! I drown you! I drown you!”.

• 
  

• Carmelo Caruso

• Carmelo Caruso, journalist in Palermo, Milan, Rome. He started at La Repubblica. Today he works at the Foglio