A bill on relief to the relatives of
victims of road and motorway collapses after Italy's worst
bridge disaster unfairly discriminates between married couples
and couples in civil unions, President Sergio Mattarella said
Tuesday.
The bill on compensation for the relatives of victims of road
and highway collapses contains a "discriminatory" provision of
civil unions compared to marriage, as well as "unacceptable
discrimination between the children of victims on the basis of
the marital status of their parents", Mattarella wrote in a
letter addressed to the Speakers of the Lower House and Senate
for the promulgation of the measure.
Mattarella signed the Bill for the recognition of benefits in
favor of the victims of damaging events resulting from total or
partial collapses of road or highway infrastructures of national
importance, called the "Morandi law" after the Genoa bridge
disaster that killed 43 people in August 2018.
But he accompanied the signature with the letter to the
presidents of the Chamber and Senate and to the Prime Minister
Giorgia Meloni in which he points out some "discriminations" in
the provision that will have to be remedied.
The law was approved by the Chambers last March 20.
"Article 4 delegates to secondary provisions the task of
identifying harmful events - present and future - as well as the
subjects entitled to the expected economic benefits, attributing
to such sources a wide margin of discretion. This provision does
not appear to be in line with the constitutional system",
Mattarella wrote in the letter with which he accompanied the
signing of the proposed law on the Genoa Bridge Disaster.
"As constantly stated by the Constitutional Court - he added -
the primary source must ensure sufficiently detailed regulation
of the matter in order to the criteria for exercising
administrative discretion.
"It should also be considered that the law is financed through
commitment limits - 7.1 million for 2025 and 1.6 million
starting from 2026 - and the availability of limited resources
makes the exercise of the aforementioned discretion even more
problematic in order to guarantee the satisfaction of rights".
Egle Possetti, president of the Committee for the Remembrance of
Victims of the Morandi Bridge Disaster, said:
"With reference to the law regarding donations to victims of
collapses of nationally significant road infrastructures, we are
pleased to learn that the President of the Republic has
promulgated the law that has been in the works for a long time.
"We respectfully await the necessary checks by the competent
bodies following the findings of the Quirinale, we will
obviously be happy if there were extensions in the application".
Former Italian highways company ASPI CEO Giovanni Castellucci
was sentenced to six years in jail last week for a viaduct bus
crash at Avellino south of Naples in July 2013 that killed 40
people, and has started serving this definitive term.
Castellucci is also among those on trial for he Morandi Bridge
Disaster.
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