Everyone remembers a tweet from about ten years ago, a great classic from Salvini’s anthology, in which the current Minister of Infrastructure and Transport celebrated the return of his party from an initiative: “A wonderful evening with the Northern League Brothers. Ginepro, absinthe, limoncello and now… .Peacefully behind the wheel with Vasco! We are free, we are free!!!”. Somewhat randomly thrown in capital letters aside, many people in that incident complained that he consumed a quantity and variety of alcohol that was incompatible with walking from the hallway of a 60 square meter house to the bathroom, let alone driving. car.

“A few glasses of wine won’t hurt”

Many drinks, from wine to mojitos, have passed under the bridge since then, but Salvini has never lost the habit of spreading at least questionable messages about alcohol consumption, vehemently opposing the labeling demanded by the European Union. Remind consumers that there is only scientific evidence: alcohol is bad for you, and abusing it can cause serious illness and even cancer. The Northern League leader’s latest outburst was precisely about the permissible blood alcohol level for driving; One value in the new highway regulations will remain unchanged: “A few glasses of wine not only do no harm, but are absolutely legal for those who consider it healthy,” he recently declared, inspired by a dogma that was dear to our grandparents, but has no confirmation in the scientific community.

“We always have to go back to familiar concepts,” said Gianni Testino, national president of the Italian Alcohol Association. Consumption of ethanol, found in wine, beer and spirits, is one of the main causes of traffic accidents. accidents; Already with one or two units of alcohol, psychophysical performance decreases even in the absence of awareness, as ethanol reduces the perception of risk”. According to Testino, the deputy prime minister “delegitimizes the work that health and social healthcare professionals carry out on a daily basis in the name of prevention and health promotion” and ” It represents an extremely dangerous message in the presence of 7.7 million Italians who already consume “alcohol in a risky way.”

District 30, scooters, electric cars and bike lanes: new enemies

Although driving after drinking “a few glasses of wine” is not a problem for Salvini, urban speed limits are a problem. “Cars and vans can’t be the enemy. Driving around the city at 30 p.m. doesn’t help the environment,” he explained, drawing inspiration from sources likely close to him in terms of immediate family. In fact, the so-called “30 zones”, which have been adopted for years in many European cities such as Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, ​​​​Madrid and are increasingly widespread in Italy, serve not only to improve air quality, but also to reduce numbers. In order to prevent road accidents and guarantee safe passages for pedestrians and cyclists, cyclists are clearly angered by the Minister of Transport: “I love cycle paths – he said while speaking at the Cna meeting – but in Italy many of them are dangerous for cyclists and harmful to the economy of our country”.

We don’t know how much damage poor cyclists are doing to our economy, it sounds a bit like a painless glass of wine story but the minister is literally putting a rim on their wheels with the new highways law. In addition to the crackdown on hated electric scooters, which will be limited in speed and serial number, very dubious changes are also planned that actually concern the circulation of cyclists: for example, the rule regulating one and a half meters for overtaking. By motor vehicle users “where road conditions permit”. The Bikeitalia.it portal explains that the effectively used formula makes poor overtaking of bicycles impractical. The site identifies five moves against cyclists and the same number against sustainable modes in the decree, ranging from narrowing and restricting the direction of cycling lanes to restrictions on the use of speed cameras.

And then there is the slogan against electric cars, which is now the banner of Northern League propaganda, strongly opposing the farewell to internal combustion engines from 2035, envisaged by an EU-approved regulation. This is a gift to China, “economic and environmental suicide,” according to Salvini. Who knows from which great enlightened democracies we buy fossil fuel? Who knows on what scientific basis does the minister base his belief that the transition to electricity would be “environmental suicide”? In this case too, it is safe to suspect that the source is the same as the “non-harmful” wine glasses.

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