Explosive charges blowing up the eastern pylons of Genoa's Morandi motorway bridge on June 28. The remnants were destroyed almost 11 months after its partial collapse during a storm killed 43 people and injured dozens. — AFP
MILAN: Italy will soon make a decision about revoking highway concessions, a move that will likely raise further tensions with Autostrade per l’Italia, the company that operates more than half of the country’s aging toll roads.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the government was close to ending a review on the revocation process sparked by a deadly bridge collapse, as he set out his priorities for next year.
A legal decree in the works aims to prevent the government from having to pay out billions of euros in compensation to autostrade, even if the company asks to end its concession, according to the latest draft seen by Bloomberg News.
"Victims of Morandi bridge claim justice and reports attesting insufficient maintenance don’t leave us indifferent,” Conte said Saturday during a press conference in Rome.
"We don’t want to give discounts to any private individual, we want to protect the public.”
Since the bridge collapsed 16 months ago near Genoa on a motorway operated by Autostrade, a unit of the billionaire Benetton family’s Atlantia SpA, the owners have been trying to head off government efforts to revise contracts for what is a lucrative business.
The disaster killed at least 43 people, angering the public and sparking conflict between Conte’s administration and the companies that run the nation’s roadways.
On Dec. 22, autostrade told the government it was ready to give back its highway concessions if the provisional legal change is confirmed. Spokesmen for autostrade and the government declined to comment on the draft decree.
2020 goals
Conte said other goals for next year include simplifying bureaucracy and decreasing the tax burden. The economy will grow thanks to a "strong infrastructure plan” involving Southern Italy, he added.
Still, the government coalition he leads is facing several internal tensions.
During the press conference, Conte unveiled Lucia Azzolina as his next appointment for education minister, after the last one Lorenzo Fioramonti resigned over a lack of funding for the education sector.
He is also making Gaetano Manfredi the university and research minister.
