Morandi Bridge following the collapse, photo Michele Ferraris/CC

Morandi Bridge following the collapse, photo Michele Ferraris/CC   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Commenting on the Mirandi bridge collapse in which 43 people died, Resistenze Internazionali (CWI Italy) writes: “This disaster could and should have been avoided. We want to say it clearly, the collapse of the Morandi Bridge is not the result of some unpredictable and imponderable event but due to a precise political choice – to entrust the management of the Italian motorway network in the hands of the profit-driven private sector. A private sector that hides its interests and responsibilities within a system of holding companies and subsidiaries that are protected by laws written specifically for them.”

Interior minister Matteo Salvini of the right-wing Lega has attempted to divert attention from the failings of capitalism by blaming EU austerity. Italian premier Giuseppe Conte, under public pressure, has threatened to revoke the motorway contract of Autostrade per l’Italia – despite having been a legal advisor to Aiscat, the Italian association of motorways and tunnels. And the Lega’s coalition partner in government, the populist Five Star Movement, had to delete the article it wrote in 2013, when opportunistically opposing a new road link, dismissing as a “fairy tale” the possible collapse of the Morandi Bridge!