League leader, Deputy Premier and
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Friday the high-speed rail
(TAV) line between Turin and Lyon must go on, adding that a
spending review could save up to one billion euros on the
controversial project.
Meanwhile the League's senior government partner, the
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), accused Salvini of
"lying" about how much progress had been made on the key tunnel
north of Turin.
Salvini said on his arrival at the TAV building site at the
tunnel at Chiomonte: "if going back costs as much as going
forward, I'm for going forward".
He said "there are many tunnels" involved in the pan-European
project, and "we would be the only ones who would be stopping".
He said it was preferable to move goods and people by rail
than by road and said a revision of the project could save one
billion euros.
There was tension between 'No-TAV' protesters and police
guarding the tunnel site.
Anti-migrant Euroskeptic League leader Salvini is in favour
of completing the TAV while cutting some "excessive expenditure"
while M5S leader Luigi Di Maio is against going on with the
project.
Di Maio said Friday he would not visit the Chiomonte site
because, allegedly, "not even a centimetre of tunnel has been
dug there".
The M5S, and its transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, have
insisted on carrying out a cost/benefit analysis which,
according to M5S sources, is set to come out against completing
the project.
Salvini has done his own sums and says the failure to
complete it will mean losing billions of euros.
At the same time as Salvini's visit to Chiomonte, French
Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne visited the TAV work site
across the border in France, at Saint-Martin-La-Porte.
She called the TAV "an important project.
"France has confirmed its commitment to the project and the
respect of the accords signed between our two countries," she
said.
The line must be completed, Borne made clear.
She said France's position on the completion of the project
was "clear".
Visiting the work site in Savoy, she recalled the
international treaty ratified during the last Franco-Italian
summit, when the two countries underscored their commitment to
completing the project.
"To realise this Franco-Italian project, there must be two of
us", Borne said.
But M5S Foreign Undersecretary Manlio Di Stefano said League
leader Salvini is lying about the tunnel being built at
Chiomonte.
"Salvini didn't go to see the TAV worksite but only a 5 metre
hole," said Di Stefano.
"You mustn't spout electoral propaganda on this issue but
only tell the Italians the truth.".
"There is no work in progress...We want to invest citizens'
money to realise works useful to all, works that are useful to
citizens every day".
Di Stefano called for an end to "chat" on the TAV, saying it
would never be completed.
"Enough useless chatter on a useless work, which won't be
done. Full stop." he said.
""let's think about bridges, roads, the banks of rivers our
country urgently needs. #NoTav #M5S".
Meanwhile Premier Giuseppe Conte announced that the
government would "unblock building sites" on major
infrastructure projects, calling the move "a Pact on work
sites".
This pact, he said, would "free up and speed up the
realisation of infrastructures all over Italy".
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