- Nineteen prisoners use cutlery to break out of cells at Winchester prison
- France wants progress in Ukraine before Russia returns to G7
- Italy president begins talks to seek way out of government crisis
- Italian PM expected to resign as political chaos deepens
- Russia says US cruise missile test ‘regrettable’
- Kremlin - No date set for Normandy talks on Ukraine despite Macron meeting
- Egypt court hands out 6 death sentences on terror charges
- Putin says Russian nuclear explosion poses no threat
- Russian panel eyes alleged foreign interference in protests
- Gran Canaria wildfire triggers evacuation of thousands of people
- PM Johnson calls on Germany and France to compromise on Brexit
- Sudan's ex-president Bashir arrives at corruption trial
TEHRAN, Jul 6 - Deputy Italian Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said infrastructure group Atlantia (ATL.MI) should repay excessively high tolls earned in recent years from its motorway concession if it wanted to keep the contract, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -Di Maio’s 5-Star Movement has been threatening to revoke the contract under which the Italian company runs the nation’s largest motorway network after a bridge operated by the group collapsed last August killing 43 people.
But party sources have told Reuters the 5-Star Movement would be prepared to accept a compromise if Atlantia yields to a number of demands including sizeable cuts to road tariffs.
“Our goal is the revocation of the contract,” Di Maio was quoted as saying in an interview with Corriere della Sera daily.
“In order to convince us not to go ahead with that, Italians must get back all that’s being taken away from them in recent years due to increases in toll roads, and a lot more,” he added.
Atlantia did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Motorway tolls in Italy are among the highest in Europe and are a sensitive issue in a country that also has one of the highest car-ownership rates in the continent.
Di Maio also posted a video on his Facebook page on Saturday on the bridge collapse, saying the cost of toll roads in Italy had risen by 30% over 10 years and Atlantia’s motorway unit had earned 10 billion euros since Italy privatized the road network in 1999.
The 5-Star’s attacks against Atlantia have spread alarm in Italy’s corporate world and opened a rift with coalition partner the League, whose voter base traditionally includes small business owners.
“I’m note quite sure where the League stands in this match,” Di Maio told Corriere. “But I’m sure it won’t renege on what was said immediately after the tragedy happened.”
Source: Reuters
Your Comment