Truck blockades: Urso says, ‘The Interior Ministry is identifying lorry drivers’. Lollobrigida: ‘Check their criminal records’

The Government is taking a hard line against the lorry drivers’ roadblocks on the A1. The Minister for Enterprise, Adolfo Urso, spoke during Question Time in the Chamber of Deputies in no uncertain terms: ‘The Ministry of the Interior reports that identification procedures are under way, partly with a view to removing the roadblocks. Preventing only lorries from passing, whilst allowing cars to go through, still constitutes a roadblock, with criminal consequences, including imprisonment. It is important – and I believe it is significant and symbolic – that the hauliers’ associations themselves are asking us, and are asking the Ministry of the Interior, to have the blockades removed.”

“There is a phenomenon that concerns me, as Minister for Agriculture, and that is that tonnes of fresh and ultra-fresh produce are not reaching the North from the South due to blockades which, moreover, following the joint statement by all the lorry drivers’ trade unions, seem difficult to explain. There is something one can easily highlight by looking at the CVs of the leaders – often – of these protest demonstrations,” added the Minister for Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, on the sidelines of Question Time in the Chamber of Deputies. “If you were to look into some criminal records as well, you would find that, unfortunately, there are also issues of this nature. This does not detract from the validity of citizens’ demands. Those who act in a manipulative manner do not fit the profile of those making legitimate demands,” he concluded.

On the issue of high fuel prices in agriculture, “we will be taking further measures, which I will be able to outline to you in detail, colleague, once they have been approved, as is our custom,” added Lollobrigida during Question Time in the Chamber of Deputies, in response to a question from Italia Viva.

“We are also open to discussing a cap on diesel prices, something that exists in other countries,” said Matteo Salvini, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, on the sidelines of the summit at the prefecture in Milan. “Yesterday I listened to all sectors, from the large ones to the small and very small businesses that own a lorry,” he added. “I will continue to listen to them; we have released 1 billion euros in funding, and from today payments will begin for 2,000 companies a day, out of a total of 32,000, amounting to nearly half a billion – so real money, delivered quickly.” “What we are not prepared to do is tolerate criminal behaviour,” he explained, “in the sense that I meet workers from all over Italia – lorry drivers, farmers. All those who are currently attacking their colleagues, slashing lorry tyres, blocking motorways and threatening those who get into lorries to make deliveries – these are matters of public order.”

“We reiterate the appeals made in recent days and the need for the dialogue initiated by the Government with road haulage associations: the situation in cities across Southern Italy remains extremely critical and risks worsening further as the hours pass,” stated the mayors of Bari and Naples, Vito Leccese and Gaetano Manfredi, in a joint statement. “We acknowledge the financial commitments announced by the Government,” they said, “but concrete steps must be taken to speed up the resolution of the dispute. We call on the Government and Minister Salvini to bring forward the talks scheduled for the 27th, as we risk our cities being paralysed and overwhelmed by rubbish.”