Meloni, von der Leyen’s support eight months after floods to be met with protests

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet in Forlì to decide on further aid for flood victims, eight months after the Emilia-Romagna region was struck by disaster but protests from trade unions and climate activists are also on the agenda.

Meloni and von der Leyen will meet on Wednesday to discuss how the EU can help Italy in the reconstruction and safety of the Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Marche regions, which were hit by devastating floods in May 2023.

“We are very pleased with the closeness the national and European institutions show with their presence. It is a truly important signal that underlines the attention paid to the aftermath of the floods and the problems that are still on the table”, explained Forlì mayor Gian Luca Zanattin.

In May of last year, the EU Commission chief had visited the flood-ridden city of Cesena, telling people in the local dialect to “hang in there”.

Now, von der Leyen is set to participate actively in the reconstruction phase.

Meanwhile, leaked information also suggests that Meloni, European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto (Fratelli d’Italia/ECR) and the president of the Emilia-Romagna region, Stefano Bonaccini, PD secretary Elly Schlein’s main rival, will meet on Wednesday. Mayor Zanattin and Deputy Minister for Infrastructure Galeazzo Bignami are also expected to attend.

At the centre of the meeting is a discussion on bad weather-related disaster relief resources and to relaunch the affected areas’ economies. To date, the government has already allocated €6.5 billion for both public and private reconstruction.

Also planned as part of the reconstruction effort is the allocation of €1.2 billion from the revision of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Meloni added.

But Wednesday’s summit will also be greeted with protests in Forlì’s main square, where associations that question what the government has done to help flood victims will gather.

Protesting groups include the National Association of Italian Partisans (Anpi), trade unions, and the Greta Thunberg-inspired Fridays for Future association.

“We believe we can judge the few responses that have so far come to the urgent needs of the flooded lands as absolutely inadequate, seriously late and extremely cumbersome”, the communiqué calling for the protests reads.

(Federica Pascale | Euractiv.it)