The Strait Bridge without roofing: and the costs have already exceeded 14.6 billion

A month ago the Council of Ministers approved the decree to build the bridge over the Strait of Messina. “A historic day,” said the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, who quantified the cost of the bridge at 10 billion, including all the railway and road access works on both banks. Well, the Def launched last Tuesday casts a shadow on the feasibility of the connection between Calabria and Sicily. As this newspaper wrote yesterday, the Economic and Financial Document clarifies that the work will involve an expense of 13 and a half billion and at the moment «there are no financial guarantees available under current legislation; therefore, they will have to be identified in the budget law”. However, this cost is destined to rise, continues the Def, because if we add up the complementary and optimization structures of the railway connections, we arrive “totalling 14.6 billion euros”.

Precisely on the quantification of the coverage, Salvini had a very different idea, given that before presenting the decree at Palazzo Chigi he had estimated an expenditure of around 8 billion in Bruno Vespa’s living room, “a year of basic income”. Now the bill is almost double. Ministry sources try to extinguish the controversy: “It is obvious that there is a lack of coverage – they observe – it will be found with the budget law, as always happens for all major works included in the infrastructure planning of the Def”.

The opposition goes on the attack. “We are facing a real political and media scam,” accuses Angelo Bonelli of the Alliance Verdi e Sinistra who is asking to withdraw the provision on the bridge. «Salvini and the League are playing an unpleasant three-card game to the detriment of the citizens. The Stretto di Messina Spa company is just a bandwagon destined to multiply seats and devour taxpayers’ money», the 5-star movement increases the dose.

The bridge is not the only question raised by the Def that agitates the League, despite the fact that Giancarlo Giorgetti is in the Ministry of Economy. The pension reform, the other great identity battle carried out by the Carroccio, is not taken into consideration. Welfare is mentioned only to recall that pension expenditure has increased by 50 billion in the last five years and that in 2024 the incidence on GDP will be 16.2%. Quota 41, the League’s proposal that would like to retire once you reach 41 years of contributions regardless of age, is destined to be postponed, provided that it is truly considered by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to be a legislature objective. Also on this aspect Salvini throws water on the fire: “Quota 41 for everyone is in the program and remains with us, the same goes for the flat tax”. According to Claudio Durigon, the Northern League undersecretary at the Ministry of Labour, the social security reform is “a topic that will be examined in the budget, with sustainability indicated by the MEF. We will continue the path already started last year with Quota 103 (62 years of age and 41 of contributions) and we will see how to improve that model».

Healthcare also ends up in the crosshairs of the center-left. In 2024, the government will cut spending by almost three and a half billion euros: it will go from 136 billion this year to 132.7 billion next year, before going back up to 135 billion in 2025 and 138.4 in 2026. Health spending is falling also in relation to GDP, going from 6.7% in 2023 to 6.3% in 2024 and to 6.2% in the two-year period 2025-26. The Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci hopes for “additional resources” and in the meantime the oppositions criticize the majority and the government: “Affected public health, Giorgia Meloni’s executive puts essential services at risk”, underlines the leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate Francesco Bowl. For the 5-star Movement “the Def is a triumph of cuts and austerity, the center-right does not care about the health of Italians”.