Reggio, Falcomatà's proposal: “An open municipal council dedicated to the stable crossing of the Strait”

John

By John

«An open municipal council dedicated to the stable crossing of the Strait, a moment of reflection to be shared with all political and social forces, trade unions, trade associations, intermediate bodies, individual citizens and movements that want to see clearly about Bridge between Reggio and Messina”. It's the mayor's invitation Giuseppe Falcomatàwho spoke at the conference on the mega project planned by the Government and which gathered, in the council chamber of Palazzo San Giorgio, all the expressions of “no” to its realization.

«We cannot be passive subjects with respect to a project that will radically change our places and our habits», said Falcomatà, strongly arguing that «territorial authorities, primarily the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, must behave as institutions and govern these processes, not suffer them”.

«If the Government wants to use cohesion funds to build the Bridge – added Falcomatà – it will have to clash with the clear opposition of the Municipality and the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria. In fact, we will not allow huge resources reserved for bridging the gap between the North and the South of the country through investments in welfare, essential public services, redevelopment of public spaces or local public transport to be transferred to the construction of the Bridge”. An infrastructure which, according to Mayor Falcomatà, must be understood as «a piece of a larger puzzle, which includes high speed, the redevelopment of arterial roads such as State Road 106 and the roads connecting to entire areas, the development of ports and airport”.

«The Bridge understood as it is, alone – he explained – would be just a useless cathedral in the desert. We need real involvement of the territory, through the institutions and in general with the community of those who have always lived in these places. I reiterated all these concepts during the meeting requested by Pietro Ciucci, CEO of the Stretto di Messina company”.

«The Government – continued Falcomatà – has decided to move forward with this project and we cannot pretend nothing has happened. We must be protagonists and not extras. The unity of the mayors, expressed in this context also by the first citizens of Villa San Giovanni and Campo Calabro, Giusy Caminiti and Sandro Repaci, but also by that of Messina Federico Basile, is the only possible way to be able to have an impact on this project . We, in fact, want to prove ourselves as serious institutions and we must be given the opportunity to do so in the contexts, in the appropriate and worthy ways of those who have the honor of representing a community of almost 600 thousand inhabitants”. «On these very important issues – concluded the mayor – citizens must be listened to and the debate must be constant and increasingly lively. Precisely for this reason, the possibility of discussing it in depth in an open municipal council meeting to be convened in the coming weeks was evaluated.”