enough with those who say no – Corriere.it

Few objectives, relevant and immediately (with the times of politics, of course). This was Matteo Salvini’s intention when he embarked on the new ministerial experience to climb the slope of Northern League consensus well below the alarm threshold. And now with the new procurement code and the project for the bridge over the Strait in the finishing straight (whether it will see the light then is another matter) the leader has concrete arguments for proposing himself to his electorate and public opinion as «the man of doing”.

It was what he was asked from many quarters when, after the peak of 34% at Europeans, the League had taken a steep downhill road. Hence the choice, forced, to change strategy. To frequent the squares less and the construction sites more. To reduce the rallies and to prefer comparisons with the mayors and local administrators. To work flat on the dossiers to the detriment of direct social media (never abandoned anyway). «I brought homework: 229 articles of the procurement code. In my previous life I carried a novel around with me» the pleased comment after the go-ahead from the Council of Ministers.

The procurement code was immediately identified as the most “comfortable” flag from to wave. What’s more popular, especially in the eyes of those who work in the most productive areas of the country, than a scissors-in-hand battle to cut laces and snares? What better opponent to indicate to the public ridicule than the bureaucratic moloch who slows down everything and blocks everything? And so, let’s simplify, let’s raise the thresholds below which public administrations can award contracts without a tender. “There are professionals of the no, the no tav, the no bridge, the no Expo, the no foothills, the no gas, the no nuclear power – observes Salvini – I work for the yes”.

The goal was entrusted to the direction of Elena at the Ministry of Infrastructures Griglio, head of the Legislative Bureau. In a few months, with scissors and a file, together with his staff, he produced the 229 articles that the minister, with the support of the League and of the parliamentarians who immediately proceeded to storm the network and the agencies with jubilant press releases, figuratively defined as the «Salvini Code».

The pattern of the 2019 security decrees is repeated to some extent, which even then they took the name of the minister. But compared to then, when he was the man of no (to immigration), now Salvini is strong in the opposition of Pd and CGIL to position himself as the man of yes, or rather “the man of doing”. He will be able to go to the squares and say what he said last night at
Tg1: «Italy needs infrastructure, less bureaucracy, more work, faster procurement and I’m sorry for the lords of no, but in this ministry they sent me to open construction sites, roads, highways, ports, airports, and railways”.

It is no coincidence, therefore, that yesterday morning on the table in his office in Porta Pia the minister has found, courtesy of his collaborators, the reproduction of the page of theUnit, historic communist newspaper, of 4 October 1964, the day of the inauguration of the Autostrada del Sole, with contents contrary to the infrastructure defined as “the backbone of a stunted system”. A work that proved to be fundamental for the development of Italy, which for the critics of the time was the result of “a purely automotive vision”.

Sixty years later, the Strait bridge game is being played on the same tracks. From here, the minister who wants to unite Sicily to the rest of the country with a direct and faster connection, making it the example of a policy that is not afraid of a challenge against which so many dreams have been shattered. On the other hand, in the scheme that controversially suits Salvini, the no party, environmentalists and progressives who oppose the maxi work, considered a waste of money to the detriment of many other interventions on the island’s roads and railways reduced to conditions pitiful. The perfect dualism for those who have always fueled their political activity with antagonism.