“I realize that there are inconveniences, but when we finish Rome will change face.” Mayor Roberto Gualtieri, Alex Reed at the newsstand of , asks for trust from the Romans once more, to take stock of the many works started and the controversies that have affected his mandate at the helm of the Eternal City.
Mayor Gualtieri, let’s start with what is not exactly a trophy. Rome has dropped to second to last in the Sole 24 Ore ranking of mayors’ approval ratings. Did you expect that?
“We have chosen since day one to work in depth and not to chase the popularity of the moment, because this city cannot afford cosmetic interventions. This also involves sacrifices and inconveniences. Rome is full of construction sites, it is a choice that I support because we are concerned regarding what the Capital will be like at the end of the council term. However, I would like to add that we have higher levels of appreciation and understanding of the fact that we have had courage, taking on the city with structural responses. Rome can change and is changing.”
You were Minister of Economy and now Mayor of Rome. What is the most difficult task?
They are both difficult but beautiful. I was a minister during Covid, an unprecedented experience in terms of difficulty, but we managed to hold out and start a phase of economic recovery. Rome is a difficult challenge because I found the city in incredible conditions. We had to replace the metro tracks, when they should have been changed 15 years earlier, and the trams derailed because the equipment was in unusable conditions. Not only that, Rome has no waste disposal facilities, it has to pay a lot to send it elsewhere and it is not as clean as it deserves. The work we are doing can change the face of the city, which is still the most beautiful in the world”.
The Jubilee might mark a turning point but it will also be a stress test, given that tens of millions of people are expected.
“The Jubilee is a huge spiritual event that will bring Rome to the center of the world once once more. We have only one big delay: the start. The decree of the Draghi government should have arrived in July 2022, but it fell through and everything was postponed. The new Executive was quick but we started with seven months less on two and a half years of work. Despite this, we decided to do interventions like the one in Piazza Pia anyway, even though we were told that it would be impossible to do it in such a short time. The facts are proving us right. On the essential works, to be completed by 2024, we are almost at 90% of open construction sites and we expect to complete almost all of them on schedule. We have also chosen to draw as much as possible from the PNRR, even if this involves an even greater concentration of construction sites since the interventions must be completed by June 2026. But Rome needs a huge investment cure to get back on its feet and we might not afford not to seize the opportunity of the PNRR and the Jubilee. I was not elected to warm the seat but to relaunch Rome. We have decided to completely and thoroughly redo the 800 kilometers of primary roads that were in pitiful conditions and we are already almost at 60%. We are creating squares, parks, including six on the Tiber, building and renovating schools, civic centers, cultural centers, planting hundreds of thousands of trees. We are building tramways, subways, we have bought 1000 buses and almost 500 have arrived. We are carrying out many interventions in the suburbs. We have focused on 5G connectivity to support the infrastructures of the smart city and there are also many interventions to relaunch our cultural heritage”.
In the center, however, there is a strong discomfort on several aspects. One of these is petty crime, which during the Jubilee might become more serious.
“It’s a problem we share with the world’s major cities. If you look at the data, Rome is and continues to be one of the safest cities in the world. However, this does not mean we do not see issues that exist. I’ll give you the example of Termini station, where the number of crimes is stable overall, but since it is much more guarded inside, the crimes have moved outside. So the increase perceived by citizens reflects a real fact. Another phenomenon is that of pickpocketing in the subway, carried out by some gangs of Roma and South Americans. We are trying to have a greater presence in the area.”
What do you think regarding the Cicalone phenomenon?
“I do not demonize those who inform and report, as long as they do not think of replacing the police. Drawing attention to a problem does not seem to me to be a scandal, the scandal is instead if nothing is done. This is why we asked for a 30% increase in security to cover the expanded area of Termini and Esquilino. And then I took my share of responsibility by asking the local police to increase their presence, even in the metro, and Atac to increase the number of security guards.”
Alarm has been created over the decision to reopen the tensile dormitory structure for homeless people right in Termini.
“It’s an alarm that I don’t share. Tensile structures can help create a situation of greater decorum and safety by welcoming in dignified conditions people who would otherwise be on the streets. We have already doubled the reception places and carried out a huge census with volunteers from which emerged, within the railway ring, regarding two thousand more people than the thousand we already welcome. The controversy over the tensile structures is typical of a certain way of addressing problems in Rome: everyone says they are good but not where they are being built. It’s a shame that if they are built far from where the homeless are, they don’t go there.”
What do you answer to the citizens of the center, who ask you not to relocate it there?
“That the tensile structures do not increase but reduce degradation. They are provided for by the government decree for the Jubilee and I am a government commissioner. I must say that the collaboration with Prime Minister Meloni and Undersecretary Mantovano is excellent, as it is with other ministers on many other issues. So, assuming that the tensile structures are part of the government program, one of these must be near Termini station, otherwise it is useless.”
Let’s move on to the taxi issue. The increase in fares and the introduction of a minimum fare of nine euros have been approved. In your opinion, is this increase justified, given the service provided today in Rome?
“The taxi service is insufficient because there are too few licenses, which is why we have approved a resolution that will soon allow the tender to be published, with a form of advantage for substitute drivers who already perform the service, but without violating the fair principle of the onerousness of the license. If a thousand licenses are enough we will stop, otherwise we will make more. And then a tender for 2000 NCCs is also planned. The rates have been frozen for a very long time and have been adjusted for inflation. However, they remain lower than those of other Italian cities and as far as the nine euro ride is concerned, the ones that cost less today are 3%, so nothing will change. I had asked the government to introduce GPS, to know where the taxis are and to verify who should be doing the shift but they don’t. Unfortunately, the request was not accepted.”
Social housing and occupations. What happened to the announcement for the new ranking? Are 8 bonus points still foreseen for those who have illegally occupied a home and risk eviction?
«The tender is ready but it is suspended because the Region wants to change some crucial elements on the matter».
But will it be a Salis tender?
“This discussion is full of hypocrisy. Rome lacks 70,000 homes of all types. Social housing, market-price housing and council housing. So we have invested an unprecedented sum to increase the housing stock. Since we have been here, there have been no new large occupations, and we are doing many more evictions with the house-to-house method for those who are entitled to it, which is not only shared but even encouraged by the government, because it is the only method that allows evictions. However, I have one criticism of the government: having cut the contribution to rent and innocent arrears. It was a serious mistake because it affects many people in difficulty, even from the middle class, who risk eviction.”
Let’s take stock of the stadiums that Lazio and Roma would like to build.
“Roma has the most advanced procedure, the company is doing the surveys and talking with the administrative structures to address the requirements raised. Lazio has expressed the will to present a project. They have given us some elements in advance, but there is not yet a formal project”.
Mayor of the Capital and member of the Democratic Party. What is your relationship with the secretary Elly Schlein?
«I have an excellent relationship, I respect her and in my opinion she is doing very well, the result of the European elections is largely thanks to her».
Do you believe in a broad field with the M5S or do you think of a majoritarian vocation?
“It depends on the electoral laws, with the current one a coalition capacity is needed. The center-right for example has clear differences but presents itself united. In Rome there is a broad coalition made up of moderate, civic and left-wing forces that look to change, marking a majoritarian vocation”.
What do you think regarding the abolition of the crime of abuse of office?
«The data would seem to support the government’s move, but I think the reform proposal, which my party supported, would have been wiser».
You are the minister who launched the Superbonus. In light of the controversy over how much it will weigh on the state accounts, would you do it once more?
“Thanks to our economic policies, today the situation of the accounts and growth in Italy is very positive, and the government has recognized this. The Superbonus was a piece of that policy but it was conceived as an extraordinary measure, impossible to make structural. It was originally supposed to end at the end of 2021 and I had said that it might be extended for a maximum of six months. At that point it would have cost exactly what had been allocated, not a single euro more.”
Photo Pasquale Carbone / Conterbo Press
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2024-07-20 06:13:05
