ROME - A serious setback for one of Italy's most ambitious infrastructure projects: the State Audit Office has expressed massive reservations about the project for the bridge over the Strait of Messina and is demanding comprehensive clarification from the government. In an official document sent to the office by Prime Minister Meloni, the auditors criticize the decisive approval decision as superficial and insufficiently justified. The government now has 20 days to clear up the doubts.
Doubts about costs, benefits and procedures
The list of points of criticism is long and concerns core aspects of the billion-euro project. The Court of Auditors criticizes that the decisive assessment by the responsible ministerial committee (Cipess) was more of a mere "stocktaking" than an in-depth analysis. Specifically, the auditors question the validity of the traffic forecasts, which serve as the basis for the entire economic plan. A discrepancy in the construction costs between different documents is also criticized. Furthermore, the way in which the files were submitted was criticized and the legality of a decision declaring the project to be of "public interest" in order to circumvent procedural hurdles was called into question - a point that had already attracted the attention of the European Commission.
Political reactions ranging from appeasement to harsh criticism
The intervention of the Court of Auditors immediately triggered strong political reactions. While State Secretary Alessandro Morelli tried to play down the inquiry as "normal discussions between administrations" and assured that all questions would be answered, the opposition spoke of a political disaster. Angelo Bonelli from the Alliance of Greens and the Left described the findings as "extremely serious" and criticized the project as uneconomical and procedurally flawed. The Democratic Party (PD) even saw the Court of Auditors' move as a "clear rejection" that called the project itself into question. The opposition parties announced parliamentary questions to question Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, the strongest political supporter of the bridge.
