Same date, same time, five years ago. It was 11.36, it was August 14, it was 2018, when the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa it thundered on the front pages of all the newspapers and in the foreground in the extraordinary editions of all the newscasts. It was the section of the bridge that overlooks the river and industrial area of Sampierdarena, 250 meters long, that suddenly collapsed together with the support pylon number 9, resulting in 43 casualties on board the vehicles in transit and among the workers at work in the underlying ecological island of the AMIU.
The memory of Meloni and Mattarella
Today marks the fifth anniversary of that tragedy, which still cries out for vengeance considering that justice has not been done, at least not to date. “There are many questions posed by that tragedy that have still remained unanswered – commented Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – The anger, the pain, the thirst for justice of the families of the victims are sacrosanct feelings and that they deserve all our respect“. Words that echo those of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella: “The passage of time does not mitigate the weight of responsibility for what happened. And it is a responsibility to do justice”.
Tragedy or scandal?
A tragedy that has rekindled the spotlight on the state of health of the Italian infrastructure and motorway network, complete with a reiterated request over the years for the revocation of concessions to ASPI. In recent months, shocking details have emerged relating to the collapse of the viaduct, with testimony and depositions who recounted how some design flaws had created concerns about whether the bridge could stay up. But nobody did anything, despite knowing how things could have gone. And how it went we all saw it.
Salvini’s comment
“On 14 August five years ago Italy stopped and we all still remember it with bewilderment, sadness and emotion. The collapse of the Morandi Bridge is one of the greatest tragedies in our recent history: 43 victims, hundreds of displaced people, a terrified community”writes the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Matteo Salvini on Facebook, who this morning went to Genoa together with his families to “to commemorate those who are no longer there and to remember the great effort which, after the disaster, united all the forces of the country to rebuild the bridge in record timeovercoming divisions, slowness and bureaucratic obstacles, an extraordinary infrastructural work which demonstrated the reaction capacity of the Genoese and of the whole country, Italian ingenuity and its potential for rebirth”.
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