An alleged corruption case is being used by the opposition and the media in Italy to demand a halt to the construction of the Bridge over the Strait of Messina ("Messina Bridge"). The case involves a former member of the board of the SdM (Società Stretto di Messina, the contractor), a local businessman, and a former deputy president of the Court of Accounts. The former two are accused of attempting to corrupt the latter, to obtain a favorable sentence from the Court of Accounts. However, if they did so, they failed, because the CoA gave a negative opinion last November, which forced the government to review the bill and delayed the construction schedule.
The timing invites suspicion. Italy’s judiciary is strongly influenced by a liberal faction, called “Magistratura Democratica” (MD), which has sabotaged major infrastructure projects with judicial procedures in the last decades. MD controls the governing body of the judiciary (the High Council of the Judiciary), which appoints chief prosecutors in all prosecution offices nationally.
The CEO of the SdM, Pietro Ciucci, said that the investigation won’t disturb procedures and that construction should start within this year. He also said that the SdM is the injured party in the investigation and that the former member of the board, who represented the Calabria regional administration on the board, had no operational or representative powers and had resigned at the end of his mandate last April.
