Antonino Garofalo / Photo credit: MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP
While hundreds of opponents of the Lyon-Turin high-speed line are preparing to demonstrate in the Maurienne valley, this line is also a source of tension between France and Italy. Rome is particularly concerned that the end of the work, scheduled for 2033, will not be respected.
Despite a ban from the prefecture, around 2,000 opponents of the Lyon-Turin high-speed rail line are preparing to demonstrate this Saturday afternoon in the Maurienne valley. But on the other side of the border, this line has also regularly been the source of tension between Paris and Rome. Italy still fears that the end of the works in 2033 will not be respected.
Italy expects “transparency, seriousness and respect” from France
The reassuring words of Minister Clément Beaune last month are not enough. Knowing that the Infrastructure Orientation Council advises Paris to delay by ten years, in 2043, the delivery of the French access roads to the cross-border tunnel still worries Rome. “The Lyon-Turin is too expensive, France freezes Italy”, writes for example the newspaper La Repubblica. The daily fears that postponing the work will make the infrastructure ineffective and rekindle the protest.
The Italian government shares these concerns. The Minister of Transport, Matteo Salvini, condemns the French hesitations and demands from France “transparency, seriousness and respect”. Today, Italy displays a united front on the file. But in 2019, the site had put the government in crisis. The Five Star Movement had wanted to withdraw from the project, but Parliament had rejected the proposal.