Trivial sums paid to businesses, “zero comma” compensation, in the face of an unacceptable narrative made up of announcements of 100% refunds, while the reality is made up of bureaucracy, slowness and funds that never arrived.
There are many things that don’t add up in the process of rebuilding the economic fabric that should have followed the flood of May 2023. “Let’s hurry, it’s late” is the cry of alarm with which Legacoop Romagna brought together its businesses in Ravenna, one year after the beginning of those tragic events, to take stock of the situation in front of over 200 female and male cooperative workers.
The location of the initiative is the Copura warehouses, one of the 22 companies associated with Legacoop Romagna that were invaded by water and have now restarted thanks mainly to the efforts of their members and the cooperative system.
Bonaccini: “We are the locomotive, but if we stop Italy is in trouble”
“Romagna has never stopped – said the President of the Region Stefano Bonaccini – and this land is a heritage of the country. Giorgia Meloni said: “You are the locomotive of Italy” and I said to her: “Thank you president, but remember that if we stop, the carriages behind will stop”. Despite the flood, Emilia-Romagna broke the export record with 85 billion euros, think what a land this is.”
Flood: here is the report from the Region and Legacoop
Lucchi: “It’s difficult to declare oneself optimistic”
«The data made public in April in the press by the commissioner structure – he said the president of Legacoop Romagna, Paolo Lucchi — they tell us that until a few days ago the applications completed on the Sfinge platform were 775, of which just 63 had passed the Invitalia check. There were around forty practices ready for liquidation, for a value of 1.5 million euros, but there were 29 practices that had received a first part of the contribution, for a total of 400 thousand euros. Can someone explain these figures to us, given that almost 90 thousand people were damaged by the flood, including 16 thousand businesses, and the estimated damage in Emilia-Romagna is 8.5 billion, of which 3.5 to private individuals? We were promised 100% refreshments, but it is increasingly difficult to declare ourselves optimistic.”
The agricultural companies
«A truly worrying chapter concerns the farms affected by the flood – he added the Ravenna coordinator of Legacoop Romagna, Mirco Bagnari – because nothing has yet arrived from the State. Instead, European funds from the EU crisis reserve were disbursed, bringing the funds reaching the primary sector to around 150 million euros. Regarding public reconstruction the damage to infrastructure is estimated at around 5 billion, but the overall resources provided by the Government and the Commission Structure were less than a tenth. Other problems concern the impossibility of compensating movable property lost following the flood and the failure to activate the tax credit mechanism, in addition to the mess with the PNRR”.
Coop associates: “45 million in damages”
«The cooperatives associated with Legacoop Romagna – concluded the president of Legacoop, Simone Gamberini – have suffered around 45 million euros in damage, but the flood hit a very large territory which also includes Bologna, Reggio Emilia and Modena, a an area worth several tens of billions of GDP. Unfortunately, the Government’s bombastic declarations of commitment in the days following the disaster were not followed by facts and a year later we are still waiting for full reimbursement of the damages suffered. The commissioner structure, with which we have actively collaborated in recent months, has had to operate with ordinary bureaucratic procedures which have severely slowed down the disbursement of refreshments. We have fully done our part to not leave cooperatives and communities alone, mobilizing more than six million euros of solidarity resources, and we will continue to do so. This is also why we demand answers and expect a sense of responsibility and respect from the institutions for those who risk falling into resignation.”
Many testimonies from the affected cooperatives, including that of Copura, the host company, which through the speakerphone of its president Corrado Pirazzini retraced the sequence of bureaucracy, announcements and inexplicable slowness that the victims of the climate catastrophe had to face
Numerous institutions participated: Irene Priolo, vice-president and councilor for Soil Defense and Civil Protection of the Emilia-Romagna Region, the deputy prefect of Ravenna Pierluca Castelli, the president of the Province of Ravenna, Michele De Pascale, the president of the Province of Forlì-Cesena, Enzo Lattuca, as well as the president of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Stefano Bonaccini.
