The G7 ends today, but the echo of what happened with the ship Mykonos Magic, formerly Costa Magica – the ship that was supposed to host men and women from the police force involved in the event – has not died down and promises to continue to fuel controversy for a long time to come.
The reason is simple. We at InsideOver we were the first – and as far as we know, the only ones to date – to have raised the issue: the ship whose rental cost 6 million euros, reduced to a pitiful hygienic state and now seized, was apparently inspected by unspecified personnel from the Ministry of the Interior two months before the G7. Supporting him in an interview released before the case broke out were the brothers Guido and Luca Fertonani, managing director of the naval brokerage firm Ferrando & Massone.
Evidently the inspection was not as thorough as it should have been or, alternatively, the vessel suffered an unexplained collapse immediately afterwards. Whatever the reason, there was image damage, but also economic damage. We talked about it with Pietro Colapietrogeneral secretary of Silp CGIL, one of the main police unions, who on 12 June, from the dock of the inland port of Brindisi, recorded a video complaint which was then posted on social media.
“When I went there, I found an undignified situation. There was a police commissioner among the officers, I was moved to see him sharing that situation with his men and women, but on the spot I haven’t seen a single parliamentarian, neither from the majority nor from the opposition, yet there are many who pull on the jacket of the police when they need it.” Colapietro doesn’t mince words when he talks about a clear political responsibility: “For what happened there are responsibilities at all levels, up to the highest. Surely now a scapegoat will be found, but the blame for what happened must be sought at the top of the ministry itself, political responsibility lies with the Minister of the Interior“.
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Colapietro speaks of a disorganization that perhaps was not perceived as such from the outside, but which personally involved the operators of the police force: “On all the tables I attended starting from three months before of the start of the G7, it was immediately clear to me inattention towards organizational aspects and, above all, towards the role of the police force. Both from an economic and logistical point of view.”
The general secretary of the Silp CGIL believes that the choice of the place in which to hold the G7 was also unfortunate from the point of view of the organization of the security service. A choice based more on aesthetic principles than on actual safety: “Brindisi was not the best choice. The roads are narrow, the sites where the events were held are too many and there were many inconveniences for the population. Not to mention the already summer temperatures.” In short, a series of critical issues and choices considered wrong which have made the task of the police – subjected to frenetic work rhythms – truly complicated.
And now that the institutional meetings are over, we are waiting to understand if someone will take responsibility for them 6 million thrown away and the other money – a lot of it – which was used to find a replacement ship at the last minute and the accommodation scattered around the city to host in a dignified manner those who safeguarded the correct running of the event and the safety of the participants.
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