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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s plan for a €13.5bn bridge linking Sicily to the mainland has been left in jeopardy, after the country’s court of auditors rejected the proposal late on Wednesday.
The Rome court — charged with assessing government-funded projects to prevent waste of public funds — did not give an immediate reason for the decision, but said a full written verdict would be issued within 30 days.
The ruling is an embarrassing setback for Meloni’s rightwing government, which had touted the project as a symbol of their commitment to boosting infrastructure in the poorer south. Rome has also claimed the 3.3km bridge is a national security imperative, which would help Italy fulfil its pledge to boost defence spending.
After the verdict, Meloni and her deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini insisted the project would go ahead despite the court’s verdict.
Judges previously raised numerous concerns about the government’s’ approach to resurrecting the decades-old bridge project, which was scrapped in 2012 during Italy’s sovereign debt crisis.
Among other issues, the judges had questioned Rome’s award of a €10.6bn contract to the Milan-listed construction company, Webuild, without a fresh tender, based on a bidding process originally carried out in 2005.
During the Wednesday hearing, judges also expressed concerns about the project’s financial sustainability, arguing that the costs were not properly outlined and the documentation supporting the cost estimates was incomplete and outdated.
Judge Carmela Mirabella warned that starting the project without adequate funding could “lead to a subsequent interruption, which would be very damaging, especially for the state’s finances”.
Within hours of the court ruling, Meloni and her allies accused the judges of exceeding their authority.
The decision “is yet another act of encroachment by the judiciary on the choices of the government and parliament”, Meloni’s office said, calling their rejection of the project’s validity “an intolerable intrusion, which will not stop the government’s action”.
Salvini, the project’s biggest champion, called the verdict “a serious blow to the country’’ and “a political choice rather than an impartial technical judgment’’. He also vowed that the government would “pursue all possible avenues to get the work started’’.
Foreign minister Antonio Tajani, leader of coalition party Forza Italia, said on social media that it was “unacceptable in a democratic country that the court of auditors decides which strategic projects should be carried out”.
Italian nationalists have dreamt of linking Sicily to the mainland since the 19th century. In 2006, the late premier Silvio Berlusconi signed a €3.8bn bridge construction contract with Milan-listed builder Impregilo, which was later acquired by Webuild.
After the bridge was scrapped, Impregilo sued Rome for €700mn in damages.
After taking office in 2022, Meloni’s government began efforts to resurrect the project.
Webuild had offered to drop the lawsuit against Rome if the project was revived, though the scheme has met fierce local resistance, including among hundreds of property owners whose homes would be due for expropriation.
Pietro Ciucci, chief executive of Stretto di Messina, the state-owned company expected to operate the bridge, called the court judgment “a big surprise” and claimed “the entire process was carried out in full compliance with Italian and European general and specific regulations governing bridge construction”.
