While Bolognese motorists are becoming increasingly accustomed to the new limits, the conflict between Deputy Prime Minister Salvini and the Municipality of Bologna is growing, with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport announcing a directive on the issue and the Municipality saying it is calm, because the new rules which for some months have required motorists not to exceed the speed limit of 30 per hour on 70% of the city's roads have been made "in compliance with the rules and with the support of the ministry".
The spin arose in the last week, when the "City 30" entered its structural phase, with the first fines issued by the traffic police. After days of controversy, which mainly saw as protagonists the deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini and the mayor Matteo Lepore , the announcement from the MIT of a directive has arrived which aims to "avoid forcing".
The MIT says it is against extending the ban to the entire municipality and intends to put a stop to the proliferation of speed cameras. The councilor for mobility Valentina Orioli responded to the criticism by recalling that zone 30 does not concern the main roads of the city and that there are no speed cameras to detect speeds, delegating the checks to the traffic police who have been busy with the telelaser in recent days in the streets where there have been more deaths and which have given out around ten fines in a week. The Municipality also recalled that not only did the Ministry give support to the Municipality in writing the rules, but that the extension of the "30 zones" was strongly recommended by the road safety plan launched under the Draghi government and the minister Enrico Giovannini with the objective of reducing deaths on the roads. But on this issue, the MIT says, "the political sensitivity of the current government is legitimately different from those who led the MIT or the country in the past and who are now in opposition to national level".
Bologna, therefore, carries on, waiting to read the contents of the directive and returns to invite Minister Salvini and the ministry's technicians to sit at the discussion table. Perhaps also involving the cities that have already applied "City 30", such as Olbia, where the centre-right mayor claims the goodness of his choice.
The issue, however, sparked a political tussle, both on the merits of the issue and on the method. «For Salvini - says the secretary of +Europa Riccardo Magi - autonomy is only good if you do what he says from Rome. Actually, no: it's not even good to do what he says, given that the 30 km per hour limit in cities is set by his Ministry's guidelines. But the fact that Salvini intervenes with the hard fist of the central state on a legitimate decision of a mayor is a dangerous precedent that the Northern League leaders themselves should condemn."
Virginio Merola, Lepore's predecessor and PD deputy, announces a parliamentary question, while the League, starting with Tilde Minasi, group leader in the transport commission, defends Salvini's decision to declare war on Bologna at low speed.
This morning in an interview with QN Salvini once again clarified: « Lowering the limit in a generalized way risks producing effects opposite to those desired . More traffic and pollution without significant improvements in safety. Furthermore, the mayor and the council forget that the previous national government had supported 30 zones, but in the vicinity of schools or kindergartens . Imposing them throughout the city is a stretch that betrays the spirit of the zones 30. "
(Unioneonline/vl)