Salvini: 'Bridge funds for bad weather? They are not to be touched'

Funds earmarked for the Strait Bridge will not be diverted to the damage caused by the bad weather in the south. This was said by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, on the sidelines of a Roberto Maroni conference in Montecitorio. 'No, because they are investment funds, you have to know the things. Then we have almost 30 billion construction sites open in Sicily, what do we do? Do we block them? We will find the funds we need for Sicily, for Calabria and for Sardinia but without blocking schools, hospitals, bridges, tunnels, the Tav, the Brenner tunnel'.

"The bridge must be done, then we can perhaps make some advances, we will see what can be done: there are many proposals and we will evaluate them all, including that one. But we must first quantify the damage, understand how much is needed and where it is needed: all proposals are useful". This was said by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Brussels, responding to a question on the use of funds from the Messina Strait Bridge for the regions hit by the bad weather. "There is an extraordinary mobilisation of the government, the 100 million is only an initial intervention. I will be in Sicily, Calabria and Sardinia on Monday to meet with the companies that have suffered damage and need to be supported, just as we did in Emilia-Romagna," Tajani explained. In the evening, however, the foreign minister sent a clarification on X: 'FI wants the Strait Bridge to become one of the great works designed to promote growth in Calabria, Sicily and the whole of Italy. The funds earmarked for the construction should not be cut and used to compensate for the damage caused by the bad weather. There are many proposals in this regard that will be examined by the government. The one to use the bridge funds finds us opposed'.

The idea of diverting funds earmarked for the Strait Bridge for reconstruction work on the damage caused by the bad weather for Cyclone Harry and the landslide in Niscemi was also voted for by the Sicilian regional assembly. The agenda, presented by the Sud Chiama Nord deputies and approved by secret vote by the majority of the Sicilian regional assembly, commits the Sicilian government to proceed "with the utmost urgency, to a reprogramming of the 2021-2027 Development and Cohesion Fund resources, in order to adjust the spending priorities to the serious and extraordinary consequences produced by the calamitous events that occurred in January 2026". In the 'odg' it is explained that 'in August 2023, the Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning Cipess assigned to the Sicilian Region EUR 6.6 billion for interventions to be carried out in various axes and, specifically, for interventions for the maintenance and planning of the territory and infrastructures, interventions that cannot therefore be financed through the use of other financial sources, such as, for example, the OP-Fesr or the Pnrr'. The agreement for the Development and Cohesion Fund (Fsc) 2021-2027 between the presidency of the Council of Ministers and the presidency of the Sicilian Region, has ensured the Sicilian Region a financial endowment, reduced to €5.35 billion compared to the original endowment of €6.6 billion, earmarked for the financing of 580 interventions, while €1.3 billion has been earmarked for regional co-financing for the Strait Bridge. "The state has earmarked," the agenda says, "Fsc funds originally earmarked for the same purposes of maintenance and infrastructuring of local territories, both from the cohesion agreement with the Calabria Region (300 million) and from the share under direct government management 3.88 billion euro (increased from the original 2.3 billion), for the Strait Bridge amounting to 5.44 billion euro. The Sicilian assembly has therefore committed the regional government to allocate in particular the 1.3 billion euro provided as regional co-financing for the Strait Bridge to an extraordinary programme of reconstruction, environmental rehabilitation, securing of the territory and restoration of public and private infrastructure damaged by Cyclone 'Harry' and to 'commit the national government to using for the same purposes also the Fsc resources taken away from Calabria (300 million euro) and those taken away from government management (3.88 billion euro)'. The agenda is not binding but delivers a clear political message.

The oppositions are also pressing the issue. In addition to Schlein, who first called for the use of the bridge funds, M5s leader Conte also pleads the cause: 'Salvini's words on the bridge? I believe that a responsible government absolutely must take the necessary funds. Thirteen and a half billion have been thrown on the bridge for a flawed, deficient project that was rejected. And let's remember that there are also funds snatched from the regions of Sicily and Calabria. We have given a signal: one million euro by cutting our salaries. The government, on the other hand, has the responsibility to make a clear, concrete and immediate choice'.