The Camera Approved the Infrastructure Law 160 to 110, But €2.8 Billion in Funding Has Been Quietly Delayed by Eight Years.
Italy’s lower house has given final approval to the decree that resets the legal framework for the Messina Bridge, passing it 160 votes to 110 with seven abstentions on 7 May. The government had imposed a confidence vote the previous day to block amendments and push the text through unchanged from the Senate version. The decree is now law. The bridge, however, remains as distant a prospect as it has ever been.
The headline figure buried in the legislation tells the real story. The decree shifts €2.787 billion earmarked for the bridge from the 2026-2029 period to the 2030-2034 period. Total allocated resources remain at €14.442 billion on paper, but the effective spending horizon has been pushed back substantially. The bridge that Salvini has described as the defining infrastructure project of the Meloni era will not see the bulk of its funding deployed for at least another four years.
Why a New Law Was Needed
The government was forced to act after the Court of Auditors delivered serious objections to the Cipess deliberation approving the bridge’s definitive project, refusing to register it. The decree was the government’s response to that institutional blockage, essentially resetting the administrative pathway and appointing new commissioners to push the process forward.
The decree charges the Infrastructure Ministry with carrying out the steps necessary to update the financial plan of the concessionaire company, acquire technical opinions, conduct environmental assessments and manage relations with the European Commission.
The New Commissioners
The chief executives of ANAS and RFI, Claudio Andrea Gemme and Aldo Isi respectively, become extraordinary commissioners for the main road and rail works, with expanded powers to coordinate authorisations, overcome bureaucratic delays and guarantee delivery timelines. Both operate with the powers of the Sblocca Cantieri framework, meaning they can bypass standard public contracts regulations. The RFI chief specifically takes on the role of commissioner for the railway infrastructure works complementary to the bridge, recognising that a bridge without efficient rail connections on both sides would be a stranded infrastructure asset.
What the Opposition Says
The parliamentary debate was sharp. Democratic Party MP Marco Simiani said the bridge was effectively dead because there is no act confirming the project can continue its process. Nicola Fratoianni of the Green and Left Alliance accused the government of using the bridge as an ideological choice to mask structural problems in the south rather than addressing more urgent needs.
FdI MP Aldo Mattia defended the decree: “This measure has multiple areas of intervention, primarily the Messina Bridge, but one single purpose: to build and modernise our infrastructure to drive growth. Behind public works there are entrepreneurs, engineers and workers.”
Beyond the Bridge
The decree is broader than its name suggests. It also contains measures for the safety of the Gran Sasso tunnel and the A24 and A25 motorways, acceleration of Rome’s Metro C line, protection of the Venice lagoon, reconstruction works following the Morandi Bridge collapse in Genoa, and the tunnel and outer harbour dam in Genova. Provisions for Milan-Cortina 2026 and UEFA Euro 2032 infrastructure are also included.
The Messina Bridge has been announced, cancelled, revived and restructured so many times since it was first proposed in the 1960s that each new legislative milestone generates less excitement than the last. What is new this time is the combination of a Court of Auditors rejection, a funding timeline pushed to the mid-2030s, and a commissioner structure designed to bypass the normal rules. Whether that combination produces a bridge or produces another chapter in a saga that has outlasted dozens of Italian governments remains the question that the Strait of Messina has been asking for sixty years.
