(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 28 - The sooner the government names a commissioner for the Emilia-Romagna flood emergency the better, rightwing League party leader, Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said Sunday.
The appointment has been delayed after local centre-left Governor Stefano Bonaccini was ruled out in favour of a technocrat.
Media have touted former COVID-19 emergency commissioner and army general Francesco Paolo Figliuolo as the government's new candidate.
A commissioner is needed to control the flow of the billions of euros in flood relief coming into the northern region after the disaster claimed 15 lives and caused billions of euros in damage to crops, infrastructure and property as well leaving health threats in contaminated and stagnant waters, which are now thankfully receding.
"The sooner the commissioner is named the better it will be," said Salvini, stressing however that "everyone is already able to work" on the clean up and reconstruction of the flood-hit areas.
"It's not as if the commissioner is the Baby Jesus," he added, saying "there's no commissioner who can have miraculous powers, a commissioner is not enough to say that the work will start".
(ANSA).
Sooner the better for E-R flood commissioner says Salvini
But flood emergency czar 'won't be Jesus' says League chief