doubts about Minister Salvini’s announcement

BRINDISI – Once the singing is over, it’s time for the counterpoint. The announcement of the minister and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini yesterday, Monday 3 June 2024, in Brindisi on a “ten-year plan” for Cerano, which “is not welfare”, leaves us perplexed first of all for the timing, then also for the methods. A similar announcement a few days before the European elections raises some legitimate doubts. Especially when you look at the ways: not a slide, not concrete data. Salvini explained that a plant for the assembly of photovoltaic panels will be built in the Adriatic capital, to be installed along the Italian railway network. When? Before the summer of 2024. The deputy prime minister’s comment: “I’m counting on someone to be a little calmer this evening when he goes home to his children.”

Hope is shared not only by direct and related workers at Federico II, but by the entire territory. However. However, there is the impression that the Northern League minister was in a hurry to announce a project that may be at an advanced stage, but not definitive. Thus, if Antonio Cannalire of RFI spoke at the press conference, many noticed Enel’s silence. Okay, we’re talking about a third-party initiative and Enel has explained in the past that it is interested and available, but the giant is still working to define the project terms before making an official announcement, which in any case will be given by RFI. Everything is being finalized, so slow down with the announcements. Salvini was not of the same opinion.

Caroli: “Too many things are not clear”

The president of the regional task force on employment, Leo Caroli, was in Brindisi on May 31st at the demonstration. He deals with the future of workers, who are not numbers, they are people and families. He therefore knows that an announcement, even if made for a good purpose, if it is not followed by concrete facts, fuels false hopes and mistrust. And the history of Brindisi is unfortunately full of unfulfilled announcements. “We in the Region don’t know anything. And we don’t even know that there is a project to be submitted for evaluation by the parties, among which is the Region”, explains Caroli. And he specifies that there was no discussion even on an informal level.

“We need to handle this matter with great caution”, also because “too many things are not clear. This is because there is no overall project. Interventions, for the love of God, are welcome, but in this way they do not respond to an overall vision of a project broader. Then, an industrial project is such when it is presented on a technical level. Now I expect an official expression of interest. In short, there is no concrete industrial plan to discuss. And, finally, we need to understand how to initiate workers towards a project of professional retraining. We should adapt, if necessary, this regional catalog according to these needs”, adds Caroli. If one has moved coal, one cannot invent a worker in another field overnight.

Rossi: “Salvini brought confusion”

Former mayor Riccardo Rossi is dubious about the timing of the announcement, first of all. The doubt that it was an electoral ploy hangs in the air. “He could clear away these considerations by coming next Monday, after the elections,” Riccardo Rossi wrote yesterday on his Facebook page. However, the former mayor of Brindisi is also an engineer. And so the doubts of a technical nature, based on what Salvini himself declared, are all there: “When he talks about triangulations and says that the panels are made in Catania and the panels and inverters are made in Brindisi, what does he mean? Are the panels assembled here, in a frame, and covered? Let me explain what the inverter is: it is the instrument that converts the direct current to alternating current. It makes sense to do this, but with this project you won’t recover all the workers. related to Enel”.

The other doubt is that Salvini was not clear in reporting technical data. “RFI has an infrastructure around which the panels can be positioned. But, in this case, what does it actually mean to make workers work? There is a lack of clarity. How can all this be reconciled with the conversion of the Cerano site? The traces are being made here or along the railway lines around Italy? And then we talk about ‘ten years of work’. I don’t understand how a minister can make these statements when there are workers who are risking their jobs, bringing more confusion than certainty.” , concludes former mayor Rossi.

One last comment: wouldn’t it have been better to come to Brindisi with a little more certainty? Right because, as said and repeated, workers and citizens of other unfulfilled illusions really don’t feel the need. And there is a lack of welfare. As they shouted during the demonstration on May 31st, they want “work” and, therefore, “dignity”.