“There is also a bit of Ravenna in Genoa, among the miasmas that spread as the transcripts of Toti & co.’s phone calls. are published. In the port of Ravenna one of the most involved families in the port sector is that of the Ottolenghi: La Petrolifera Italo-Romena, Petra, Docks Cereali, Depositi Italiani LNG are the names of the terminals present in the port of Ravenna. And then the Ottolenghis hold a very important share in the SAPIR group and, therefore, in the control of the land on which the port expansion is taking place. If you look around on the website of PIR Group (which stands for Petrolifera Italo Rumena), however, there is a reference to another name which refers precisely to the City of the Lantern. Another name by which the Ligurian capital is known, in fact, is the Superba, apparently given to it by Petrarca as a sign of respect and admiration. Is exactly Superb is the name given to the company owned by Ottolenghi of the coastal depot in Multedo, a neighborhood in western Genoa, connected to the oil port of the port. It operates in the sector of storage and handling of liquid chemical products. By accessing the dedicated site we first learn that the main focus of the entire company, for some time, has been on its delocalisation.
Own of the relocation of the so-called Chemical Deposits of Multedo, i.e. Superba and nearby Carmagnani, in fact, (we learn from the press) «deals with an intercepted dialogue between Toti [il presidente della Regione Liguria] and Bucci [il sindaco di Genova] reported in the precautionary custody order: speaking of port development, the president of the Region and the mayor speak of the many “desires” on the part of the operators. Bucci compares port entrepreneurs “to the pigs he fed as a child”. Toti expects to obtain new financing from the same companies». Among the names mentioned later in the dialogue is that of Spinelli, an important Genoese port operator, indicated by the investigation as one of the main corruptors (“From Toti to the Democratic Party, everyone on Spinelli’s yacht”). «Here the connection with the “deposits” item emerges. Toti: “Spinelli wants us to beat that fucking Concenter…” and Bucci: “Of course! In fact, we’re ruined, as soon as they solve the problem of deposits, we’re ruined. I’ll tell you straight and clearly… do you understand?”. Toti: “Yes, but Spinelli is neutral on deposits eh… he doesn’t even give a damn…”. And Bucci: “No but he actually says it’s fine… from that point of view, he supports us”».
The problem is that in the port of Genoa the spaces are immeasurably smaller than the appetite of the pigs. Starting from this fundamental consideration, let’s read further about press: «For now there are no hypotheses of crime nor entries in the register of suspects but the Genoa prosecutor’s office has opened a file on the controversial issue of the relocation of the Superba and Carmagnani chemical depots from Multedo, in the west of the city, to Ponte Somalia, in the port of Sampierdarena . The project, which on Wednesday received a substantial stop from the Regional Administrative Court (which contested both the authorization process and the funds from the Genoa decree allocated by Bucci, in his capacity as extraordinary commissioner, for the operation), has always been opposed by the inhabitants of Sampierdarena, but also by various port operators – for reasons of competition on the docks – and by much of the opposition.
The Genoese prosecutors think that the green light for the decision came after undue pressure. What aroused suspicion was the turnaround of the CTR, the regional technical committee, which initially had definitively expressed its opinion on the deployment for security reasons. Then, however, in 9 days, the position had changed. From no we had moved on to a conditional yes. In the meantime, however, unclear events had occurred. A meeting of the CTR was interrupted due to an illness of the president, the fire brigade commander Claudio Manzella. In the following days the green light document arrived, although conditional, and with two months delay compared to the deadlines established by law».
It thus sounds like a mockery that while investigating, (we repeat «for now there are no hypotheses of crime nor entries in the register of suspects») the TAR, as mentioned, has blocked the very relocation project on which the magistrates’ suspicions have been pinned. Moreover, Guido Ottolenghi already explained well that moving was not an easy task a 2019 video for Primo Canale, a Ligurian television station whose editor is now under investigation by magistrates. He asked rhetorically: «Who’s in charge in port? Who is in charge in the city?». And he added: «We think that this matter is regulated by very complex, very rigorous and very binding laws. And what we would like is that, in the end, it is the laws that decide, not the pressure groups».
In Genoa, the judiciary’s investigations are giving the answer on who is in charge and how much the rules are worth in recent days. In Ravenna the answer was given, a few years ago, directly in the City Council. A project had been presented to build two huge LNG (liquefied natural gas) deposits in the portwell before the story of the regasification terminal for the same product. The applicant was Ottolenghi himself who requested that the two warehouses reach a height of 23.71 m, well above the maximum allowed by urban planning regulations, i.e. 12.50 m, to obtain a capacity of 10,000 m3 each. It was the same Municipality that was supposed to enforce the rule that asked that it not be. Councilor Del Conte proposed the exemption. His offices explained that lower reservoirs would not be economically viable for the private sector. The exemption could be accepted, however, only in the presence of a public interest. This was motivated by a supposed improvement in air quality. An improvement in air quality due to 11 meters and 21 centimeters more height? And then it should have concerned, possibly, port silos. And what did silos, i.e. warehouses for bulk goods (grains), have to do with enormous tanks for liquefied gas (LNG)? Ravenna in the Municipalityacting as a spokesperson for the opposition on the part of the inhabitants of the beaches (the schools are about 500 meters from the tanks), was the only political force in the City Council to vote against a resolution which did not respect either the rules or the popular will which, however, it was equally approved.
Every port has its masters, one might say or, using the disrespectful words of the mayor of Genoa, its pigs. And every port has those who do everything to feed them. As Ravenna in the Municipality we appropriate Ottolenghi’s words so that they also apply to Ravenna: «what we would like is that, in the end, it should be the laws that decide, not the pressure groups». Even in port. In every port. Even in the city. In every city.”
Ravenna in the Municipality
