«If the president’s first public outings had made us raise our guard levels, today the limit is full» declare Legambiente, the Environment and Work Association, Lipu and WWF. «It is unacceptable that the operational function of Arpa Lombardia be kept in check, in a Region where the environmental monitoring and control functions are so crucial and, indeed, should be adequately strengthened and updated in the tools. A dangerous game is underway that damages the environment and the Agency’s credibility. We wrote to President Fontana to intervene to restore the smooth functioning of the Agency, removing the president from her position and finding a figure finally suitable for such a delicate role”. This is how the environmentalist associations express themselves and are once again calling for the removal of Lucia Lo Palo.
A request that also agrees with the statements of Paola Pollini, Lombard regional councilor for the M5s who, like the associations, says she is worried about the stalemate in which Arpa Lomabrdia finds itself.
«We have supported this for some time and with each passing day new facts emerge which convince us more and more that Mrs. Lo Palo is totally unsuitable to fill the role of President of Arpa Lombardia. On April 23rd we filed a protocol with Arpa formal request for access to documentsto have a copy of the new Organizational Regulations as the one currently published on Arpa website it is dated 2020 and updated in 2022, therefore dating back to the previous management. We also asked if the President intended to make use of the current organizational plan or if she intended to proceed with a new approval, in which case we asked if, pursuant to art. 12 of Regional Law 16/1999, the General Director has formulated a proposal for the new organization and accounting regulations and has a copy of them. We learn, from press articles, that that regulation, although already drawn up by Director Cambielli, is still stuck on the President’s desk, awaiting her signature”.
Paola Pollini, Lombard regional councilor for the M5s, said this regarding the president of Arpa Lucia Lo Palo. «The result – continues Pollini – it is the blocking of Arpa’s activities and its reorganization, which after the last management we all hope for and invoke. The current stalemate is not good either for Arpa or its employees, but not even for the people of Lombardy who would like a more protected and healthy environment and an efficient and effective Arpa”.
After the news of tensions between the president of the Lombardy Region Attilio Fontana and the president of Arpa Lombardia, the group leader of the Democratic Party Pierfrancesco Majorino returns to the issue raised already months ago, when the denialist statements on climate change by Lucia Lo Palo. «This ridiculous theater must be stopped – declares Majorino – especially on a body as strategic as Arpa, which should be on the front line to defend, now and in the future, our environment. Fontana is not an accomplice of a climate denier like Lo Palo, she respects the will of the Council which voted her no confidence and, finally, removes her”, concluded Majorino.
