The sequence is that of a top designed on a table. The unwritten and never declared objective is all contained in the proof of the facts: isolated Sardinia, no flights, planes with a dropper, skyrocketing tickets like never before, a lot of discrimination for emigrants, tourists and non-residents in general. The "sacred" decrees of state, advocated with a lot of publication in the Official Gazette and signature of the Minister, have as their object a definition that in Sardinia, today more than ever, is a mirage: territorial continuity. In Rome, as in some office in Cagliari, however, they do not yet have a clear idea of what it is. Or rather, maybe they know, but they insist on pretending not to know.
The Sicilian bridge
For example, we should ask the newly installed Minister of Transport, Matteo Salvini, who, as a first step, summoned two regional presidents, those of Sicily and Calabria, to Porta Pia. The goal, net of an electoral campaign that never ends, is to start construction sites to build the bridge between the island and the continent. We have to ask ourselves: in that elusive and illusory bridge will the Calabrians be able to go to Sicily without showing their identity card and pay ten times more than residents in Sicily? An answer would be enough to understand the substantial and legal violations contained in the new notice for territorial continuity.
Insularity denied
Yet the history of air connections to and from Sardinia is the persistent denial of a sacrosanct right, sanctioned by universal, European and even constitutional norms of the Italian state. The constitutional legislators have recently called it the "island principle", or rebalancing, in practice putting Sardinians and Sardinia on the same level as other Italian and European citizens. In practice, with the umpteenth new proposal for territorial continuity, all this is not only denied, but trampled on in the name and on behalf of the boundless and insatiable interests of the airlines. At the height of the constitutional recognition of insularity, the lowest point of the "island" rights of Sardinians takes place.
The single rate has been snatched
The single tariff, for example, the one that allows free access to Sardinia without speculation on residence, was established in 2012. A unanimous vote of the parliament had forced the Minister of the time to revoke the decrees proposed by the Region itself, which contemplated the logic discriminatory against residents and non-residents, with very serious economic damage for Sardinia. Since then, for nine years, until 2021, the island has been able to take advantage of the single rate, even if only for nine months a year, excluding, following yet another donation to the airlines that had asked and obtained to do that who wanted, or almost, the summer period.
Suicide notice
Now with the new announcement that has just been published, Sardinia is "deepening" in the most sinister isolation, after having seen impossible fares of over 450 euros on the Cagliari-Milan, one way. It is useless, however, to blame bad luck, it has nothing to do with it. Behind the territorial continuity of Sardinia there are unspeakable interests that have always tried, most of the time succeeding, to speculate and blackmail the island of the Sardinians. After all, it is not difficult: moving, moving quickly, for reasons of work, study, or even for a short vacation, like any civilized part of the world, needs an airplane capable of creating a true "bridge" between Sardinia and the rest of the Continent. Anyone understands this: if you do not put a stop to regulating the service, in an island it is easy to blackmail and speculate. For this reason the community directive was born which stated: a public service obligation must be imposed on the islands. In practice, the airlines that agree to perform that service must "settle" for a "reasonable" business profit, set in Sardinia at 4.7% of the actual cost of the flight. All this, in recent years, has essentially gone to bless it. The state first and then the region gave the airlines an avalanche of "compensation". Every year from 50 to 70 million euros in unjustified compensation, so unjustified that the same companies, for the first time in 2003/2004, have, on several occasions, agreed to perform the service without receiving them. What is happening now in Sardinia is, however, more and more a matter for the Competition Authority and the market. The sequences of facts and deeds are enough to find out if behind the isolation of the island there is a plan to put the Sardinian economy and beyond.
The puzzle of the crime
The sequence is a puzzle that must be observed as a whole, starting from that 13 October 2021 when a low cost airline, the Spanish Volotea, landed in Sardinia from Asturias, bursts into the scene of territorial continuity. Eliminate from the competition none other than the heir of Alitalia, the Ita that shows up in the race without planes. Excluded. A real treacherous majesty that sends the state company into a rage, which has been killed by the low cost enemy. It seems the beginning of a new era, with the market becoming competitive for the first time, breaking the historic and obsequious Alitalia monopoly in Sardinia.
Everyone's lawyers
The first shock, however, occurs a few days after that award. Ita appeals to the Sardinian Tar. The lawyers of the Chiomenti firm present themselves to defend it. For the Region it is a very low blow. That same firm, in fact, was selected by direct negotiation by the Transport Department for the provision of a "Legal assistance and technical support service for the definition of a new air continuity regime, with public service obligations, on the routes to be and for Sardinia, which also includes an economic support necessary for the definition of the PSO Regime in compliance with Community regulations ". In practice, those who had legally assisted the Region to write the notice of territorial continuity were also the lawyers of the company that had risen from the ashes of Alitalia. For them also a hefty remuneration of 145 thousand euros.
The announcement
In that proposal for territorial continuity, later launched by the Region, the single tariff had been canceled with the inclusion of clauses that were highly detrimental, and not a little, of the connection service to and from Sardinia. At the Tar of Sardinia the lawyers of Ita attack Volotea and the Region, as if nothing had happened. The lawyers of the Region react and remind the defenders of Ita of that gigantic conflict of interest. Volotea also responds, accused of having made an unattainable auction reduction of almost 50% on compensations. The Spanish company replies by claiming to have multi-year contracts for the supply of fuels and to be able to perform the service without all those compensations.
Love in the skies
Another element to understand that the regional donations were a real gift of public money. Time, however, as we know, is very often a convict. It is a short step from treason to love. On March 22, 2022, Volotea, when the contract expired, realizing how much it was earning on the Sardinian routes, decided to break the delay: we do the service without any compensation. With the consequence, however, that it will recover everything with the tickets of non-residents, not equated and let alone controlled. Ita, the company Italia Trasporti Aereo SpA, relaunches the day after. It is March 23: "Acceptance of public service obligations from May 15, 2022 to May 14, 2023, without taking advantage of exclusive rights and without receiving financial compensation". It is on this occasion that the lawyers of the former counterparties begin to meet, to exchange reflections and proposals on how to "divide up" the routes, given that these are two companies willing to perform the same service on equal terms. They agree with the speed of love at first sight. They consume continuity without preamble.
Lasting wedding
They are so fond of us that they want certain and advantageous weddings. They know they have the Region “in hand” at this point. They can dictate the conditions to them, all the more so if they decide, as they will, to unilaterally terminate that service contract out of the blue. The Region has trusted, and has been cornered as nothing. With a sequence that has remained secret to most, Volotea and Ita suddenly decide, at least they let us believe, to "terminate" without hurting that contract without any charges. No one knows on the basis of which clause the two companies were able to terminate a public contract, without paying penalties, including the mandatory exclusion from new tenders for interruption of public service. They certainly did and the Region remained silent, as if it had foreseen it.
The blitz of the new announcement
From viale Trento they had gone wild to argue that they wanted to negotiate, through the new government, a new tender with the single tariff, precisely to avoid another year of very heavy speculations against Sardinia. None of this. From the Department of Transport, almost to accommodate the timing imposed by Ita and Volotea, the new call is "promulgated", the same one written more than a year ago by Ita lawyers: no single tariff, no civilian frequencies, stellar compensation , as if those discounts proposed by Volotea were to be forgotten forever.
Monopolist cartel
In the announcement, the one drawn up by the legal consultants of the Region, who later became lawyers for Ita, there is, however, a clause that last year could have seemed rhetorical. This time, however, it is far from secondary. To art. 3 of the tender specification states: "Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 does not prevent a group of air carriers from submitting a joint offer".
Insular sack
The circle could close with this norm-cartel, capable not only of eliminating competition, but of bringing home, for the companies that agree, a double rich prize: 52 million euros in compensation and millionaire collections worthy of the worst oil speculation to be accumulated on the shoulders of Sardinian emigrants, tourists and non-residents. In Sicily and Calabria they discuss a physical bridge to cancel distances, in Sardinia the sack of insularity is being prepared.
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