Castelbolognese (Ravenna), 6 June 2024 – Everyone’s commitment, in that May 2023, was to do not exploit the tragedy. Smiles, handshakes and bipartisan hugs, between often shared catwalks. It didn’t last long.
The mountains of out of order household appliances after the flood. The mayor of Ravenna Michele de Pascale (right) and the deputy minister Galeazzo Bignami
The flood in Romagna soon turned into the perfect political – and now electoral – battleground. The last act of campaign for the vitriolic administrative and European elections the other day, in Castel Bolognese (Ravenna), from where the deputy minister of Fd’I Galeazzo Bignami he returned home and was accused by the Democratic Party of threats to flood victims. At the center, once again, is the issue of reimbursements of movable property to private individuals.
The fact
In Castel Bolognese Bignami intervened in an electoral initiative in support of the centre-right candidate and the video of that event soon went viral. Or rather, it became so the next day, when some people relaunched it top exponents of the Romagna Democratic Party – among all the mayor of Ravenna Michele de Pascale and that of Cesena Enzo Lattuca – relaunching a fragment of the long speech. “They are ready 6 thousand euros flat rate for any citizen who wants to ask for them, the law must be passed, but if there are people directed or externally directed by the Democratic Party who want to continue to make all this a weapon of political struggle we tell them frankly, we are also ready not to give them – said the deputy minister –. But talk to the Democratic Party because they are the ones who they are fomenting so that those citizens cannot have them.”
The reactions
The first to turn the spotlight on the video is de Pascale, underlining that Bignami is “the tenth time (which announces, ed) a imminent decree” for the movable property and that the sum this time is no longer “5 thousand euros as previously announced”.
But de Pascale also speaks of a “far from veiled threat, not to allocate even this clearly insufficient amount if the criticism does not stop immediately. I wonder if Bignami he spent more or less than 6 thousand euros on the furniture in his house“.
The mayor of Cesena Lattuca echoes this by speaking of “very serious statements which once again demonstrate the total confusion between party and institutions democratic that afflicts the exponents of the Brothers of Italy”. But the same interested party promptly replies: “The Democratic Party is exploiting the flood in a shameful way” recalling the “serious responsibilities for the terrible care of the territory” while the “Government has allocated 6 billion in a year”. Then the issue of movable goods, for which the dems are asking to bring the reimbursements to 30 thousand euros: “Never for any calamitous event has money been given for movable property. This would be the first time – claims Bignami –. And instead of recognizing the Government’s effort, they accuse it of making fun of people by giving 6 thousand euros as a lump sum. Since we don’t want to make fun of anyone, if they really think so we are ready to withdraw the law and discuss it again.”
Previous
For the tornado that swept through Emilia in 2013 and the January 2014 flood of the Secchia, in the Modena area – where the damage was more limited than the disaster in Romagna – they were compensation provided to private individuals of up to 15 thousand euros for movable property and up to 85 thousand for real estate. For the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake, however, the ceiling was different: 10 thousand euros for movable property, from which around 3 thousand citizens benefited.
