Regionals

Calabria on the ballot amidst the unknown high-speed train and a future bridge over the Strait

In the elections on 4 and 5 October, a two-man challenge between outgoing governor Occhiuto and former Inps president Tridico

16 September 2025

Calabria, Occhiuto si dimette: "Non mi farò fermare, mi ricandido"

5' min read

What to start from, appearance or reality? From what is missing or from what is there? From what is broken or from what works? From the Pollino or the Aspromonte? From the genius loci or from a 'non-lieu'? Calabria is a kaleidoscopic territory and its representation, its storytelling, as they say, is often a tangled and suspended narrative.

The Occhiuto carambola

The most remarkable fact of this summer that has already ended was certainly the carambole of the governor Roberto Occhiuto who, a few days after receiving a notice of guarantee for corruption, resigned as president of the region and later also as health commissioner. This was a surprise move, and he was re-elected on the spot in the elections called for 5 and 6 October. Claiming what has been achieved in four years to make Calabria a 'normal' region, from hospital construction sites to airports. All work in progress.

The effects on territories

But on territories and communities the effects of this sudden and forced standby have been heavy, not so much for the precipitation of events, but for the widespread perception of an unfair upset, given the social and economic vulnerability of the region. On which also weighed, at the same time, the initial evanescence of the opposition, which has now compacted into a very wide camp around Pasquale Tridico, former president of the Inps and head of the 5 Star Movement's delegation to the European Parliament. A third candidate has also entered the race, Francesco Toscano, of Democrazia sovrana e popolare (the party founded by Marco Rizzo).

Summer emergencies

But while politics plays the game in its own way, with a great pre-electoral bailamme, in the highlights of the summer, Calabria has been left at the mercy of itself: sewage treatment plants under seizure, serious water shortages (in some areas, such as Villa San Giovanni, Scilla, and many districts of Reggio Calabria, the situation has verged on emergency), tourism in decline according to Assobalneari estimates, at least with respect to the first four months of the year (+10%), medical wards closed at mid-August due to lack of personnel, and congested emergency rooms, have been the bitter leitmotif of the last few weeks, those that prelude next month's vote.

Tourism declining in Tropea

Tropea, for example, a destination where tourism has grown by 56.7% over the last 10 years, and which is now worth over 74 million euros in the area, has seen a drop in the number of holidaymakers: "The tourist tax showed a 3.5% drop in admissions in July compared to last year, i.e. an 8.2% drop in revenue from the local tax. And in August we should not have exceeded last year's numbers,' explains Massimo Vasinton, entrepreneur and president of the Tropea Hoteliers' Association. 'We are a touristically mature reality, but we have to reckon with the territory,' he adds, 'and therefore, in our case, with a municipality dissolved for infiltration by organised crime, managed by a commissioner's office.

High Speed, Yes-No?

The rebus of the high-speed train is on the table: will it be done or not? Is it still to be considered a strategic work in Calabria? And is it still preparatory to the construction of the Strait Bridge? While Rfi continues to speak of a 'strategic route for connecting the north and south of the country', the fate of the Calabrian sections, from Praia to Reggio Calabria, remains in the shadows: several billion lire (17.2) is missing to complete the work. But the shadow is dispelled by the statements of Francesco Russo, one of the leading experts on mobility and infrastructure and high-speed railway planning, professor of Sustainable Mobility Systems Engineering at the University of Reggio Calabria, who is clear about the situation: "Just look at the documents and graphs of the European Commission to understand that until 2050, not a penny will be spent on the rail sections from Praia to Reggio Calabria. Not only that, in the end the entire Av route, presented to the Transport Commission in 2022, will be longer than the conventional line. This is the only case in the world where Av does not reduce the time distances between the extreme railway terminals'.

Strait Bridge, Calabria side

Even the Ponte sullo Stretto, on the Calabria side, at this very preliminary stage, is measuring itself against the territory and community of Villa San Giovanni, a town directly affected by the works, which risks a complete dismemberment of its urban fabric. The municipal administration is asking the Stretto di Messina company, which will build the bridge, for 'wells, water desalination plants, a new purification plant, upgrading of the water and sewage network together with lighting, accurate environmental monitoring, alternative and exclusive roads for the construction sites, and expropriations for the executive project,' as Albino Rizzuto, the municipality's town planning councillor, explains.

Aiello, political discontinuity is a risk

"We must bear in mind that the Calabrian economy is structurally fragile. And administrative fragmentation and political discontinuity further aggravate its weaknesses,' notes Francesco Aiello, Professor of Economic Policy at the Unical University's Department of Economics, Statistics and Finance. If it is legitimate and necessary to deal with innovative welfare and fundamental rights such as health and mobility, it is equally important for regional policy to understand the causes of its own decline in order to devise a strategy capable of making Calabria attractive, prioritising selective policies capable of strengthening institutions, ensuring an effective use of public resources and supporting investments in knowledge-intensive sectors, innovation and human capital. Without this methodological revolution,' Aiello warns, 'Calabria will become even smaller, poorer and more assisted. A blow to Tridico, one to Occhiuto.

Unindustria Calabria's plan

And it is to the three candidates for the presidency of the Region that Unindustria Calabria will propose a 10-point document with a plan for Calabria in the coming days. "The blitzkrieg of Occhiuto's resignation has forced us to take timely action," says president Aldo Ferrara, "but we have a clear course. An export plan for companies that thoroughly studies the markets, a landscape plan for industrial areas and their redevelopment for greater attractiveness, the union of municipalities to bring together services and personnel, a great regeneration of the local authority system, and then infrastructure. For us, high-speed rail is non-negotiable. Obviously, at the centre, we place legality'.

Rubettino's mantra, culture as a lever for development

And in this anomalous summer, if the territories have held firm to their deep-rooted identity - apart from the innate Calabrian ability to absorb the blows - it has been thanks to a cultural offer of great quality, which has effectively performed the function of social cohesion: festivals, exhibitions and debates still fill the squares. More so than election rallies. After all, it is the mantra of publisher Florindo Rubbettino: 'Culture as a strategic lever for development'. Thus, inside Carta, a museum and contemporary art park in Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino and Lanificio Leo rehearsed the future between art, technology and industrial memory in the new edition of IndustriArti. They will relaunch in the coming days with the tenth edition of Sciabaca Festival. In the amphitheatre of Gallicianò, the heart of Greek Calabria, director Alessandro Serra brought his Oedipus, all recited in Grecanico, a language still used - and studied - in the region's Hellenophone area. Everywhere Corrado Alvaro and Franco Costabile, Mario La Cava and Saverio Strati are reread (and rewritten), thought becomes more meridian under the oak tree of Africo with Gente in Aspromonte, while depopulation and restanza (that of Vito Teti) become universal themes. At the Hyle Book Festival in Taverna, in the Catanzaro Sila, literature, music and art embroidered dreams and forests. On the cliffs of Capo Vaticano, in the home of writer Giuseppe Berto, the ritual gathering of artists and intellectuals in search of paradise took place, and in San Lucido, on the Cosenza Tyrrhenian, the Fotografia Calabria Festival hosted Silence is a Gift, images by Ciro Battiloro on the suffered but also vital intimacy of some southern districts. Starting from the Santa Lucia district of Cosenza Vecchia. On the calendar, the programme is still full.