Emilia-Romagna, Meloni’s embrace of the displaced: “I am moved, the government is there”

Hair pulled back, green shirt with the sleeves rolled up, dark blue pants with clay rubber boots. When the flood victims of Ghibullo, a town of less than three hundred inhabitants in the province of Ravenna, see it before them, they cannot believe their eyes. No one had warned them. “Not even the mayor came here,” says a man who brings food and blankets to those who have lost everything. Giorgia Meloni absolutely did not want the spotlight on her. She did not communicate in advance where she was going. He wanted to see with his own eyes, touch, understand without intermediaries the extent of the disaster that hit Emilia Romagna. She couldn’t go earlier because she was at the G7 in Japan with the heads of state and government. But on Saturday he decided to return to Italy a day early: “Conscience dictates to me,” he said from Hiroshima before boarding the plane. Meloni enters the houses knee-deep in water, visits the destroyed businesses, speaks and hugs the exhausted elderly, the volunteers who have been working non-stop for days. He applauds some bare-chested young men digging in mud at Roncalceci. A man, engaged in cleaning the mud from his house, shouts to get the attention of his countrymen: “I have Meloni in the garden”. She responds with a joke: “I’ll be back at lunchtime when everything is in order”.

«It didn’t seem real to me, I saw Meloni and I had a heart attack. The mayor was never seen, not even Bonaccini and she came», tells Alberto Albonetti, hairdresser from San Pietro in Vincoli to Adnkronos who, while distributing basic necessities in the car to the volunteers who arrived to dig, came across the prime minister. «I was on the road beside the still flooded Ronco river and I saw her arrive in boots. She approached us and praised us for what we are doing, she said the solidarity machine is beautiful. She greeted us, hugged us, took pictures with my baby, she also went to see other families ». After visiting the flooded areas, the prime minister goes to Ravenna, to take stock of the city hall with the governor Stefano Bonaccini. «This is not the time for catwalks – she explains – I made six visits to random places, I was moved, and I found so many people moved by the tragedy they are experiencing. I say to everyone: the government exists”.

The Council of Ministers is scheduled for tomorrow, which will approve the emergency measures. Therefore, explains the government official, there is still time to “optimize the measures in everything that can be done”. «Estimating the damage today is difficult, it will certainly take a lot of resources – he adds -. I’ve heard inaccurate things about Pnrr, I’ve heard of 9 billion. The resources that the Pnrr allocates to these cases amount to around 2.5 billion, but know that in some cases they are already mobilized in existing projects and must be used by 2026”. In any case, “many resources will have to be mobilized, the government is already working to identify priority situations”. “In the next few hours – continues the prime minister – we will allocate resources, which however are for emergencies. The 10-20 million are now used to guarantee relief. The European Solidarity Fund can be used. The first measures serve to allocate resources for the emergency and implement all measures to exempt companies and citizens from paying taxes to stop the obligations that people and companies today cannot fulfill. After that, we have to work on compensation and reconstruction, but that requires a complete budget , and we have to simplify the procedures»”. Bonaccini will also participate in tomorrow’s Council of Ministers: “I will bring with me the representatives of the unions of Emilia Romagna and of all the business associations, because we have made a unitary document to represent the needs and what this Earth needs to get back on its feet. There is a great relationship with the government. And in the next few days the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella will also be here”.

Source: IL Tempo

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