Privatize ports to generate cash. This is the idea launched by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani at the Rimini Meeting.
“To find more funds for the state budget I am thinking of privatization. Not privatizing water but ports, for example.” he said. “Let’s move in a direction that will help Italy grow. We need to privatize, bureaucratic reform, fiscal reform, civil justice which, as it is at the moment, negatively affects the GDP. The manoeuvre must be piloted so our country grows.”
Mr. Tajani’s statements immediately provoked a flurry of reactions. The Democratic Party’s head of infrastructure, Antonio Misiani said: “Deputy-Premier Tajani’s idea of privatizing ports to generate cash is absurd and unacceptable,” he explained. “The fact that the Right-wing party is desperate for financial resources for the budget is extremely clear. However, if the Meloni government thinks it can sell off maritime state property and cancel the public regulator (terminals are entrusted to private concessionaires) to get out of the economic mess it has got Italy into, they are very much mistaken and the Democratic Party (DP) will be totally opposed to it.”
Davide Natale and Simone D’angelo, Secretaries of the Ligurian DP and the Genoan one were indignant: “Our fear is that there is a desire to generate cash because the Meloni government does not know where to find the resources to fulfil at least one of the dozens of promises they made during the election campaign.” They announced that “the Ligurian Democratic Party will launch a campaign against this proposal that will involve all local organizations and institutional representatives.”
Translation by Giles Foster
