General Figliuolo commissioner for the reconstruction of Emilia Romagna

From Covid to Covi (Joint Force Operational Command) up to the management of reconstruction after the floods in Emilia-Romagna, Marche and Tuscany. This is the parable of the general Francesco Paolo Figliuolowho will be appointed during today’s Council of Ministers for that role that had been vacant for weeks, pending an agreement in the majority.

For a long time, as extraordinary commissioner to manage the reconstruction of the areas affected by the floods last May, the name of the president of Emilia-Romagna had been mentioned Stefano Bonaccini, with whom Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni herself has shown to have a good relationship (“We worked well with him”, she said after meeting him in Romagna together with the president of the European commission Ursula von der Leyen). But in reality the governor was above all disliked by the League, which contested his management of environmental policies and against hydrogeological instability (one of the powers was also in the hands of the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein when she was vice president of the region).

The hypothesis circulating in these hours is that the three presidents of the regions affected last May – Stefano Bonaccini, Francesco Acquaroli and Eugenio Giani – are nominated as Sub-Commissioners to work side-by-side with the future Commissioner.

Figliuolo, 62 years old, had risen to the headlines in March 2021, when he held the position of extraordinary commissioner for the Covid emergency to replace Domenico Arcuri. His mandate had lasted just over a year, until the end of March 2022, and had above all produced a renewed impetus in the vaccination campaign, at the time of the Draghi government. In this interview with Foglio in July 2021, for example, he explained how schools would reopen. As already mentioned, once his work in managing the pandemic was finished, he was able to return to dealing with his main sector, that of Defense, going to the top of Covi. Figliuolo was trained at the Military Academy of Modena and boasts a long military experience, which led him to also be a member of the staff of the army chief of staff at the time of Claudio Graziano. His specific subject has always been logistics: in 2018 he was also appointed logistics commander of the army. Since he stopped dealing with the pandemic, he has also had time to write a book with the journalist from Corriere della Sera Beppe Severgnini (Title: “An Italian”).

Now the government is betting on him for the work that from now on will involve the territories and the administrations of the affected territories. In recent weeks, the requests of the mayors involved had intensified, asking the government to hurry. Figliuolo’s appointment comes more than a month after the floods in Emilia-Romagna.

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