Naples: Tonnes of trash are piling up in the streets of Naples, leaving Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi racing to sort out the mess before next Tuesday's confidence votes in parliament that may topple his government.
Berlusconi, who won re-election in 2008 after vowing to end the trash crisis in the Italian port city, yesterday reiterated promises to solve the current emergency before lawmakers decide the fate of his conservative coalition. European Union inspectors last month warned it may take "several years" to permanently resolve the garbage issue.
"He didn't keep his promise" in 2008, said Loredana Velona, a 45-year-old medical analyst in Naples. "It was easy to collect the trash and send it off to other cities, anyone could have done that. The hard part is solving the problem by building incinerators."
Berlusconi, 74, is fighting for his political life against Gianfranco Fini, a former ally who now leads the challenge to the premier's government. The turmoil has buffeted declines in its debt, with investors demanding 158 extra basis points of yield to hold Italian 10-year bonds relative to German bunds. The spread reached a euro-era high of 210 basis points November 30.
Naples has suffered periodic garbage emergencies since the mid-1990s as landfills overflowed and authorities were slow to build more dumps and incinerators. The situation has sparked protests by residents and encouraged organised crime to seek temporary contracts to remove the garbage, according to Legambiente, an environmental group.
Damaging image
"I was once again able to note how the Naples problem damages Italy's good name and image on the international scene," Berlusconi, who's travelled to Naples twice over the last month, said in an e-mailed note yesterday after returning from a summit of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Astana, Kazakhstan.
He said he was confident that "the emergency will be resolved as soon as possible."
The latest controversy arose in early October when residents of nearby Terzigno protested plans to expand dumping of trash at a site outside their town.
Television networks broadcast violent skirmishes between police and residents, who tossed Molotov cocktails and torched trash-collection trucks. Scores were injured and newspapers, including Corriere della Sera, estimated damages at more than 20 million euros.
The Naples garbage situation is another "factor that exacerbates" Italy's political mess, said Raffaele De Mucci, a professor of political science at Luiss Universtiy in Rome. "It proves that wild promises don't pay if you can't keep them."
