Salvini: “The bridge over the Strait like Brunelleschi’s dome, many criticisms but after 600 years it’s still there”

«It is enough to open an encyclopedia to discover that even Brunelleschi, when he designed the dome of Florence, was criticized. They told him it couldn’t be done.” Matteo Salvini, speaking at the League’s political training school in Milan, proposes an unprecedented parallel between the work of the Florence Cathedral and the bridge over the Strait of Messina “criticized by the lords of the no”.

The Infrastructure Minister reiterates: «If Brunelleschi had stopped at the criticisms of “it will never stand”, he would not have done it. And instead, after 600 years he is still there ». The audience of young Northern League apprentices applauds him. According to Salvini, who has promised the construction site for the bridge by the summer of 2024, “it is a work that will annoy the mafia because it will bring development and real work to lands that want it”. The minister recalled that the government is unblocking “hundreds of works” and among these “a bridge between Palermo, Rome, Milan and Berlin”.

To the criticisms on the merits of the work he replies: «They are all becoming engineers. I rely on those in the trade», and on the economic ones: «I remind those who, especially on the left, say that it will cost too much that it will cost half of what the basic income is costing Italians, which leaves no trace». Finally, he also has something for animal rights activists, «bizarre people»: they say that «the construction of the bridge annoys little birds and fish. But there are birds that are smarter than some humans. Little birds and little fish… I adore you». The minister then speaks of a “new Renaissance, if everyone makes his or her Italy in the coming years will experience a revolution of beauty, modernity and wealth that it has never experienced in recent decades”. According to the leader of the League “it is no coincidence that in the first quarter of this year Italy grew more than France and Germany”. In short, «we have no reason to be the last in the class, on the contrary we are among the top three – explains Salvini -. Just don’t be afraid of change because the opponent of this Renaissance is us and the fear of change».

A jab is the reservation, however also to journalists and after recalling two anniversaries that fall today – the massacre in Brescia and the death of “a free journalist like Walter Tobagi” – he affirms that “there is a great need for free journalists, not lazy and sit down, I say this as a professional journalist who occasionally wonders about the usefulness of the Order, as well as other professional orders».

And in view of next year’s European elections – a topic which, according to what we learn, should be discussed in the Northern League federal council convened for tomorrow – Salvini issues a warning: “If the League and the center-right in Europe have enough strength, we will say that the ecological transition is sacrosanct but on the electric car we cannot condemn ourselves to be dependent on China for the next 50 years”.