Also Somma gives green light to the “12 million” agreement

After Ferno and Lonate Pozzolo, also Somma Lombardo gives green light to the agreement for the delocalized areas taken with the Region. The accord (very contested by disapproving voices about the third airstrip and the “territorial” expansion of Malpensa) predicts a 12 million euros financing to “reclaim” and tear down the uninhabited houses after the delocalization related to Malpensa 2000. Instead, some committees but also the Pd associations of the municipalities surrounding the airport (who are criticising the agreement), emphasise the existing relation between the financing and the third airstrip: the funds are in fact linked by Sea to the green light to the group of projects forecasted from the Master Plan. That is why the Pd asked to insert in the Protocol an explicit reference to reaffirm the negative answer about the third airstrip and the logistical hub.

The Colombo committee applauds an agreement of compromise that “gets us near the final result,” Mayor Guido Colombo explains, “We state that it’s not an implicit authorisation to the Master Plan, but a concrete step to approach the solution to the problem of the houses in the delocalized areas.” The city council meeting has been long and at times stressful. Even in Somma, the Pd presented a huge correction that asked to modify the agreement Protocol, but the majority refused it fully voting (PdL and Lega) the expected deliberation. In addition to the complicated requests of the Pd, a particular notation (which has caused discord) about the areas transfer costs, that will have to pass from the Municipality to the Region, has been added. Jimmy Pasin, of the Pd says: “We have contested even the expression ‘zero costs for the Municipality’ in the Protocol, which link to the ‘agreement memorandum of the 17 of October’.” The democratic clarification caused a suspension of half an hour, in order to research the reference in the memorandum: “But it isn’t proved anywhere that the operation is free for the Municipality, it has never been written.”

In the resolution, it was approved an amendment (proposed by Francesco Calò, Democratic Party), which demands the control against the infiltrations of the Mafia, as it concerns a sector (demolitions, building, earth movement) and areas that were affected by the organised crime. On the contrary, the go-ahead for the Protocol as it is, without any modification, was given: according to the centre-left, this step shows as well the hurry of the three Administrations of the centre-right and the only possible path they took. Pasin says, “They are afraid of modifying the protocol and of taking it back to the Region because the district councillor, Daniele Belotti, who signed the protocol two days before resigning, is no longer in charge,” because of the scandal of the corruption and of the suspicious infiltrations of the Mafia which were found out with the case which overwhelmed the spokesman for the Home, Domenico Zambetti. Pasin underlines as well the vote in favour of the Lega Nord, “which refrained from voting on the agreement in Ferno and Lonate.”

As for the rest, the centre-left keeps its idea: the Commune on the one hand says not to accept the Master Plan Sea (as the vote of the city council), on the other hand it wishes that the project of extension will be carried out in order to have the 12 million euro needed to “heal” the old wounds (linked to Malpensa 2000). “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” says Pasin, which made the provocative act of putting a card with this double definition on the desk of the mayor Guido Colombo at the beginning of the town council.

On the contrary, Colombo thinks about the project with disenchantment, “when one’s governs, one has to be practical: the ideological battles are good, but to a certain extent. When one’s governs, one has to find the feasibility of a result as well. One has to find a satisfactory solution. If the opposition says we are corrupted, this is part of the game. But the one who governs has to consider all the positions taken and find a compromise, which is not a clearance sale of the area, but a decision that, in this case, allows us to make a comparison with an enterprise, the Sea, that has used the area only for the achievement of its purposes until now. The good politican has to find a solution for this problem.”