«If Twiga went bankrupt they would be the happiest people on Earth, because they are envious and jealous, and their only satisfaction would be to see the company and Briatore fail». Flavio Briatore himself responded on social media to Angelo Bonelli and Nicola Fratoianni’s initiative to make beaches common goods, in a video defending the reasons of those who have a seaside area under concession from the State. As the owner of Twiga “I have 150 families on my payroll”, and “Twiga pays almost 3 million in taxes during the season: they don’t care about this”, explains the entrepreneur. Last May 29th, the leaders of the Green-Left Alliance held a press conference in Forte dei Marmi to denounce that «the right of citizens to be able to go to the seaside today has been expropriated» «going to the seaside has become a privilege, while we they are concessions paid very little with enormous turnover”, explained Fratoianni. And so they announced their bill to make the beaches “free”. «Here behind us is the Twiga, a bathing establishment that pays 21 thousand euros a year but has a turnover of 8 million euros. In total, all the state concessions of the Italian State pay the State 100 million euros, but invoice 10 billion euros”, said Bonelli, “what Meloni wants to do is unacceptable: he has increased the length of the Italian coasts by 3 thousand kilometres. An incredible trick to avoid having to put all the maritime state concessions out to tender. At the same time, he wants to put the last free beaches in our country out to tender and privatize.” Briatore, however, replies that with the factory he employs 150 people and pours millions of euros into the state coffers every season. And then he attacks his critics: «A new couple has formed, Fratoianni and Bonelli, this couple of zero titles», quoting a famous interview with José Mourinho. There is certainly no bad blood between the entrepreneur and the two deputies. In January Briatore had invited Twiga Bonelli to work on his, given that “he has never done it in his life”, and the leader of Green Europe had accepted as long as the other transferred his citizenship from Monte Carlo to Italy.
