Genoa (Italy) (AFP)

The new Genoa bridge, inaugurated on Monday with great fanfare two years after a deadly collapse, was opened to traffic on Tuesday evening, good news even if some believe that the measures taken to renovate Italy's in poor condition are not sufficient .

The first vehicles, journalists including those of AFP, passed shortly after 8:00 p.m. GMT the elegant metal structure, almost two years after the Morandi Bridge collapsed during heavy rains, precipitating in the void of dozens of vehicles and causing the death of 43 people.

The relatives of the victims are also struggling to turn the page: "We are still anchored in the past, we are still at the collapsed bridge and with the relatives whom we lost under the bridge. We stopped in 2018" , explained to AFP Giorgio Robbiano, 43, vice-president of an association of victims, who lost his brother, his sister-in-law and his nephew in the disaster.

This tragedy brought to light the poor condition of roads, bridges and railways in Italy. The demolition of the remains of the Morandi Bridge and the reconstruction in record time has been hailed as an example of what the country is capable of when it manages to extricate itself from its heavy bureaucracy.

"It sent a message of confidence, competence and hope. All Italian infrastructures could be like this, and live up to the standards of other European countries or even exceed them", enthuses the mayor of Genoa. , a large port city in the northeast, during the inauguration of the bridge in the presence of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

The ruling coalition between the center-left and the 5 Star Movement (M5S) pledged during the coronavirus pandemic to use infrastructure projects to revive a tattered economy, as Italy fell into its worst recession since World War II.

In particular, the government has undertaken to simplify procedures to release 62 billion euros intended for public works sites, while highlighting the "Genoa model", code name to designate work carried out effectively under the direction an extraordinary commissioner.

Italy currently has around fifty major infrastructure projects that have been given a green light but are at a standstill, including a high-speed train in Sicily (south) or the widening of a motorway in Tuscany (center ), according to the Italian construction lobby ANCE.

These projects are blocked due to protracted legal appeals, business bankruptcies, political divisions or local quarrels, such as this train station in Liguria (north-east) that several municipalities are disputing.

The funds are still there: according to the Cresme Research Institute, 200 billion euros were available at the end of 2019, whether they come from the government, European funds or private funding.

Last month, the government passed a "simplification decree" touted by Conte as "the mother of all reforms," ​​but some critics say the bill did not tackle bureaucracy enough and may even be damaging.

In an interview with AFP, Angelica Donati, director of the construction sector, estimates that it takes twice as long in Italy to carry out a major infrastructure project compared to the rest of Europe. Speeding up procedures and improving efficiency and transparency would therefore be very welcome.

But according to her, the new decree harms competition by effectively excluding SMEs, which constitute the backbone of the Italian economy, from projects worth more than 5.3 million euros.

For the next two years, the administration may decide that these projects be treated urgently "because of the crisis caused by the Covid (...) which would exempt them from all regulations except those concerning the fight against mafia".

"Using the structure of the extraordinary commissioner and setting aside regulations by giving all the powers is not the right way to guarantee transparency and protect competition," she explains. "The Genoa model is a very bad idea, it's very dangerous".

© 2020 AFP