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Italy’s government divided over Turin-Lyon train line

A contested high-speed train line between Italy and France has become a key battleground for a divided government in Rome, with part of the coalition demanding the project be scrapped.

Published: 9 November 2018 09:22 CET
Updated: 9 November 2018 12:22 CET
Italy's government divided over Turin-Lyon train line
The planned train line has met with protests from locals in Italy and France. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

Business leaders are expected to lead a rally on Saturday urging Rome to forge ahead with the €8.6 billion tunnel through the Alps for the line linking Turin to Lyon, which has already been partially dug.

The rail link will reduce travel time between Milan and Paris from almost seven hours to just over four.

As well as being attacked by environmentalists, the line has been criticised as a misuse of public funds and the anti-establishment Five Stars Movement (M5S) had pledged to block it if elected.

But its government partner, the right-wing League, favours the venture and the movement now fears the so-called TAV ('treno ad alta velocità', or high-speed train) may join the growing list of promises it has been forced to break.

With furious M5S voters burning its flag over other perceived betrayals, analysts have warned a go-ahead on the line could be devastating, particularly for populist leader and deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio.

READ ALSO: Italy's deputy PM says TAV rail link will be reviewed


'We're all guilty of resisting': some protesters have been jailed for their role in demonstrations against the train line. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

“Italy is the second largest manufacturing country in Europe, and it is in its interest to have large-scale infrastructure,” insists Vincenzo Boccia, head of the industry lobby Confindustria.

Turin's city hall — run by the M5S — voted against the line last week, as protests raged outside. The following day, the Piedmont regional council — where the centre-left has the majority — voted in favour.

Piedmont head Sergio Chiamparino has said he is ready to hold a referendum on the issue to decide once and for all, while supporters of the project are to demonstrate in Turin on Saturday, along with local French politicians.

The contested project is for a 57 kilometres long tunnel between the Susa Valley and Maurienne Valley. Proponents of the line, launched nearly 20 years ago and officially scheduled to be finished in 2025, argue that it will rid the roads of a million trucks and avert some three million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year.

But supporters fear the M5S could get its way should the League believe the coalition's future is at risk over the project.

Paolo Ugge, head of the Conftrasporto transport and logistics confederation, said it was “unacceptable that a strategic piece of infrastructure… could be sacrificed as a bargaining chip”.

Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has said a decision on the TAV will be taken after a “cost-benefit analysis”.


Opponents say the TAV will damage the environment of the Susa Valley. Photo: Olivier Morin/AFP

'Legitimate questions'

The bill for the tunnel is being split 40 percent, 35 percent and 25 percent between the European Union, Italy and France.

French Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne on Monday promised in parliament “the government's determination to build this infrastructure”. Borne said she respected Rome's decision to carry out a new evaluation of the line's social and economic impact, but warned that the clock was ticking for launching tenders for the project.

She will meet her Italian counterpart for talks on Monday.

France's Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire in August said there were “legitimate questions” being asked by the Italian government over its profitability.

The EU is trying to encourage both countries to move forward with a programme that will otherwise leave it out of pocket.

The European Commission's then-coordinator for a trans-European railway network, Jan Brinkhorst, reminded Italy and France in September that the EU had already shelled out €370 million on the project between 2007 and 2013. A further €814 million for the 2014-2020 period has been signed off on, including €120 million already paid.

He warned that scrapping the project could result in the EU demanding its money back, according to European sources.

And in a carrot and stick approach, he suggested there could be more money if the project goes ahead. The Commission has proposed upping its contribution to cross-border projects to 50 percent — potentially bringing the TAV an extra €860 million. 

READ ALSO: 


Drilling the tunnel beneath the Alps began some ten years ago. Photo: Jean-Pierre Clatot/AFP

By AFP's Céline Cornu

POLITICS

‘Worrying developments’: NGOs warn of growing pressure on Italian media freedom

Media freedom in Italy has come increasingly under pressure since Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government took office, a group of European NGOs warned on Friday following an urgent fact-finding summit.

Published: 17 May 2024 17:40 CEST
‘Worrying developments’: NGOs warn of growing pressure on Italian media freedom

They highlighted among their concerns the continued criminalisation of defamation – a law Meloni herself has used against a high-profile journalist – and the proposed takeover of a major news agency by a right-wing MP.

The two-day mission, led by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), was planned for the autumn but brought forward due to “worrying developments”, Andreas Lamm of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) told a press conference.

The ECPMF’s monitoring project, which records incidents affecting media freedom such as legal action, editorial interference and physical attacks, recorded a spike in Italy’s numbers from 46 in 2022 to 80 in 2023.

There have been 49 so far this year.

Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, took office as head of a hard-right coalition government in October 2022.

A key concern of the NGOs is the increased political influence over the RAI public broadcaster, which triggered a strike by its journalists this month.

READ ALSO: Italy’s press freedom ranking drops amid fears of government ‘censorship’

“We know RAI was always politicised…but now we are at another level,” said Renate Schroeder, director of the Brussels-based EFJ.

The NGO representatives – who will write up a formal report in the coming weeks – recommended the appointment of fully independent directors to RAI, among other measures.

They also raised concerns about the failure of repeated Italian governments to decriminalise defamation, despite calls for reform by the country’s Constitutional Court.

Meloni herself successfully sued journalist Roberto Saviano last year for criticising her attitude to migrants.

“In a European democracy a prime minister does not respond to criticism by legally intimidating writers like Saviano,” said David Diaz-Jogeix of London-based Article 19.

He said that a proposed reform being debated in parliament, which would replace imprisonment with fines of up to 50,000 euros, “does not meet the bare minimum of international and European standards of freedom of expression”.

The experts also warned about the mooted takeover of the AGI news agency by a group owned by a member of parliament with Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party – a proposal that also triggered journalist strikes.

READ ALSO: How much control does Giorgia Meloni’s government have over Italian media?

Beatrice Chioccioli of the International Press Institute said it posed a “significant risk for the editorial independence” of the agency.

The so-called Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) consortium expressed disappointment that no member of Meloni’s coalition responded to requests to meet with them.

They said that, as things stand, Italy is likely to be in breach of a new EU media freedom law, introduced partly because of fears of deteriorating standards in countries such as Hungary and Poland.

Schroeder said next month’s European Parliament elections could be a “turning point”, warning that an increase in power of the far-right across the bloc “will have an influence also on media freedom”.

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