Genoa on Friday remembered the 43
victims of the Morandi bridge collapse on the second anniversary
of the disaster.
The faces and names of the victims were screened at the start of
an official commemoration ceremony.
A new viaduct replacing the Morandi bridge, the San Giorgio
bridge, was inaugurated earlier this month.
In a message, President Sergio Mattarella said that the demands
of the victims' families for "truth and justice" and that "no
similar disasters happen with new mourning and new victims" was
"right".
The head of State also called for the reconstruction of "a
reliable culture of security".
Premier Giuseppe Conte said that a tragedy of this kind "must
never happen again".
He said the recent deal that will see that the Benetton group
gradually exit Italian motorway company Autostrade per l'Italia
(ASPI), with the State coming in. will "contribute to
guaranteeing more control and security for our highway network".
The ruling anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) had vowed to
eject clothing icons the Benettons from ASPI, which it blamed
for an alleged lack of maintenance that allegedly led to the
bridge's collapse.
The government had threatened to strip ASPI of its motorway
concessions and has said that threat remains valid if the
Benetton family backtracks on the deal.
"Revocation (of the concessions) has never been ruled out," said
Foreign Minister and M5S bigwig Luigi Di Maio.
"Justice will only definitively be done when the Benettons are
totally out of ASPI".
Egle Possetti, the spokesperson for the committee representing
the victims' families, called for reforms that would deliver
faster justice.
"Our relatives are the victims of a disaster that should never
had happened," Possetti said.
"Justice is crucial, it is one of the deterrents to other
disasters taking place.
"We hope to see major reforms.
"It is no longer acceptable that trials can take decades and the
injured patries, in addition to the pain, have to wait for
justice that might never come.
"Too often we see absurd attempts to mystify reality in court.
"We can't allow it any more".
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