Thursday,
October 12, 2006
The
ANNOTICO Report
This
is strange. The Italian Right has its base in the North and is usually Anti South, But the Right is now fighting for something the
South seems to want????
Yes,
it seems the Bridge would be great for the Sicilian Economy, Yet, it would be
built ON an Earthquake fault. ??
I
wouldn't feel so bad if the intentions to address other priorities were Real, instead of mere political speak.
BBC
News
October
12, 2006
The structure
would have crossed the Messina Straits, forming the world's longest single-span
suspension bridge.
But Italian MPs
voted to scrap the proposed construction, saying they had other priorities for
There were also
concerns that organised crime networks could hijack
the lucrative project.
A total of 272
MPs voted in favour of abandoning the bridge
proposal, while 232 voted to continue.
Earthquake
risk
The project had
been promoted by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi. Two motions put forward by his centre-right Forza
Italia party to keep the bridge project did not pass.
News about the
project, on the drawing board since the 1960s, was greeted with fury by
centre-right deputies.
"Prodi's government is against
"It wants to
strike at our region, where the majority of voters opted for the right."
But many experts
had warned that the vast project would inevitably enrich southern
There were also
fears that the bridge, some 4km (2.5 miles) in length, would not be capable of
withstanding an earthquake.
The motion
included proposals to spend some of the money set aside for the project,
estimated at 4.4bn euros ($5.5bn; #2.9bn), on other transport improvements on
the island, which has long been economically weaker than the mainland.
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