Rome (AFP)
The head of the Italian government, Giuseppe Conte, said Tuesday that not achieving the high-speed rail line (LGV) Lyon-Turin "would cost much more" than completing the project.
"Do not do the line at high speed would cost a lot more," said Giuseppe Conte.
"I say that with the national interests in mind," he added in a message posted on Facebook.
The LGV project between Lyon and Turin, whose work is ongoing, has been fueling controversies for months within the ruling majority in Italy, formed by the League (far right) of Matteo Salvini, favorable to this link, and the 5 Stars Movement (M5S, antisystem) of Luigi Di Maio, fiercely opposed to the project that he considers a waste of public money.
"France has expressed itself for the realization of this work, it follows that if we wanted to block work, we could not do it," said Giuseppe Conte (close to M5S), explaining that the European Union would be willing to increase the share of its funding.
"Europe would be ready to increase the funds, which would imply an economy for Italy," he said.
The dissensions on the Italian side project have long been feared abandonment of the project but the results of the European elections seemed to put it back on track.
The voters of Piedmont, the great industrial region of northwestern Italy, have indeed voted 85% for the League and the Democratic Party, which support Lyon-Turin.
Several decades old, the LGV Lyon-Turin project aims to reduce freight transport by truck for the benefit of rail and halve the travel time for passengers by putting Turin two hours from Lyon.
Its central element is a 57.5 km tunnel, which began to be dug in the Italian and French Alps, and whose cost is estimated at 8.6 billion euros.
© 2019 AFP