euro|topics - The refuse crisis in Italy

Main focus of Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The refuse crisis in Italy

The refuse problem in Naples is gradually turning into a full-blown state crisis. This weekend saw violent protests by the city's residents. Yesterday several public servants who were given the task of finding a solution to the problem were taken into custody. Europe's press looks at the background and consequences of the crisis.

Corriere della Sera - Italy

Twenty-five members of the commission responsible for the rubbish crisis in Naples have been taken into custody and charged with criminally damaging public health and the environment. Pierluigi Battista comments: "Is it true that the refuse piles conceal a den of embezzlement? Or have the judges acted irresponsibly and frivolously, committing a fatal error and falling into a deadly trap? ... The arrest warrants were issued in January. Why have they been pulled out only now, when the state seems on the verge of removing the last obstacles to the solution of the waste crisis? ... The 25 arrests convey the impression of a criminal conspiracy which reached right up to the highest echelons of the apparatus which has been dealing with the waste problem for at least two years. If this is true, then a handful of courageous judges have dealt pitilessly with an appalling case of corruption. But what if it is not the case? What if the media attention stirred up by the arrests was a well-timed strategy to strip those who are leading the fight against the refuse of their legitimacy?" (28/05/2008)

Dnevnik - Slovenia

Andrej Mrevlje draws a connection between the refuse crisis and the import ban on Italian mozzarella. "The first Italian politician to express dismay at the American import ban on the wonderful buffalo milk mozzarella was Italy's current prime minister. ... For Berlusconi, the matter was of aesthetic importance. ... People in the EU were happy about the mozzarella scandal. Not because they don't like the cheese, which is of almost legendary significance in Italy, but because the mozzarella made it possible to exert pressure on a much bigger problem in Italy: the trade with industrial waste and the illegal refuse dumps around Naples, the cradle of buffalo milk mozzarella. ... [But] of course we ... do not mean to imply that the scandal surrounding the contaminated mozzarella is the sole reason that the conservative government is now resolutely tackling the Italian anomalies with a firm hand." (28/05/2008)

The Independent - United Kingdom

The British daily comments on Silvio Berlusconi's efforts to tackle the rubbish debacle in Naples: "The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, faces the first real test of his new government after his demand for a speedy end to Naples's interminable rubbish wars was greeted at the weekend with violent clashes and a call to arms by residents of the areas chosen for new dumps. ... Mr Berlusconi chose the battle, flying down to Naples for his first cabinet meeting last week and telling ministers that the rubbish crisis must be addressed. ... But one man's zone of strategic interest is another man's back yard." (26/05/2008)

Die Welt - Germany

Mafia expert Chiara Marasca comments on the Camorra's role in Italy's refuse crisis: "The Camorra has no interest in a solution to the crisis. It earns huge sums of money through obscure state-private enterprises. ... Rubbish is at least as lucrative as the drug trade or the building sector, where the organisation can secure public contracts. ... In the past, the Camorra ... has made offers to northern Italian firms to remove their hazardous waste on the cheap. The waste then landed in caves or on open fields. But it also deals in normal household rubbish. At the height of the crisis when the dumps are full, as they are now ... it can step in and offer alternative dumps or have the refuse vanish. The Camorra sees no need for waste incineration plants. The good thing about dumps is that sooner or later they are full, and others are needed. What the Camorra wants is a permanent crisis." (23/05/2008)

» To the complete press review of Wednesday, May 28, 2008

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