During the night, in the Caserta and Salerno areas, all the hauliers and farmers' posts on the motorway network in Campania were removed. In the meantime, the Council of Ministers has launched a 105 million aid package to combat expensive diesel fuel: the resources go to hauliers but also to the agriculture and fishing sectors.
The Guarantor requests injunction. The Naples Prosecutor's Office is investigating alleged mafia infiltration. The protest demobilized in most regions such as Calabria, Puglia, Basilicata.
500 paratroopers arrive in Milan but there is tension in the government over the rules of engagement. 'They will be able to intervene with drones and lynxes', says transport owner Salvini but minister Crosetto complains about the impossibility of 'using stinging spray and tasers' and denounces 'the attacks of those who see them as competition'. Tension is rising on the public order front due to tomorrow's new demonstrations: there is fear of a connection with antagonistic movements. Mattarella signs the new safety decree.
"Scarcity and expensive fuel, in addition to the increase in the cost of living, are putting millions of workers in serious difficulty. Today, in addition to the general increase in prices, there are added difficulties in daily travel. We cannot let this emergency fall once again on the shoulders of those who work". Rita Longobardi, General Secretary of the Uil Public Function, declares this, asking the Government for urgent intervention to expand the use of smart working in public administrations and private healthcare and third sector companies, for all compatible activities. "The problem does not only concern those who use cars. In the southern regions, for example, the shortage of fuel has already led to the reduction and cancellation of numerous bus routes, due to the difficulty in obtaining supplies. This means that even those who use public transport risk not being able to reach their workplace regularly with serious consequences on the organization of work and personal responsibilities. During Covid we have demonstrated that it is possible to organize work differently, guaranteeing continuity and efficiency of services. We therefore ask the Government to promote, through discussion with organizations trade unions, a national direction that allows the maximum temporary use of agile working, remote working and hourly flexibility, overcoming organizational rigidities that today risk further penalizing staff".
"Those who know itTaxi know that we have never succumbed to ideological protests, but today we are faced with an economic emergency that is no longer sustainable". The president of itTaxi, Loreno Bittarelli, wrote this this morning in an editorial in the Economista, in view of the sector's protest planned for Monday 26 October in front of the Mef, in Rome. "With the tariffs administered by the Municipalities, we cannot pass on the record increases of petrol and diesel to customers: the costs are paid entirely by the workers, whose margins are eliminated. We will be in the square on foot, out of shift and without cars, to make our voice heard without causing inconvenience to citizens". The category will ask the Government for the extension of "Professional Diesel", an extraordinary compensation fund and real incentives for the green transition. "Without urgent responses - concludes Bittarelli - the concrete risk is the blocking of the service due to the material impossibility of covering management costs".
"Every time a protest linked to the social and economic crisis explodes, the Meloni government repeats the same script: instead of giving answers, it talks about intimidation and infiltration and threatens injunction. This is what happens with farmers and hauliers, exasperated by the high cost of fuel". Angelo Bonelli, MP for Avs, says this, speaking on Omnibus on La7. "Yesterday, together with Nicola Fratoianni, I met protesting farmers and hauliers in Avellino. Diesel, which less than a year ago they paid 85 cents per litre, today costs around 1.60 euros. And there is the problem of agricultural supply chains: producers pay 60 cents per kilo for datterini tomatoes and are sold in supermarkets in Rome and Milan for up to 11 euros. Farmers are becoming impoverished while consumers pay very high prices", he adds. "Meanwhile - he observes - the large energy companies are recording enormous profits: Eni reports a 70% increase in net profit and the European Union's legal profession has clarified that taxing energy extra profits is compatible with European law. Why doesn't Meloni intervene? To reduce excise duties the government uses taxpayers' money rather than asking for an extraordinary contribution from those who accumulate billions in profits. Resources could be recovered to support families and businesses without subtracting from other expenditure items". "The government postpones the meeting with the categories until October 27, launches insufficient allocations and threatens injunction. But farmers and hauliers simply ask to be able to continue working. Meloni stops responding to social unease with a hard line and intervenes on the cost of fuel, on the distortions of the supply chains and on the redistribution of extra energy profits", concludes Bonelli.
The checkpoints on state road 106 in the towns of Passovecchio and Sant'Anna di Isola Capo Rizzuto, in the Crotone area, have been removed. The roadway has been completely freed from the heavy vehicles that had been stationed on the sides for days. The means of transport, which had been stopped since 16 October, started traveling regularly again yesterday to supply the shops with goods. Some tractors remain positioned on the roundabouts, left as a symbolic defense of an agitation that is currently only suspended. The loosening of the grip follows the commitment made by the protesters after the conversation with the president of the Calabria Region, Roberto Occhiuto. The result is the result of constant mediation work conducted in the area by the vice-prefect of Crotone, Ester Libertini, who collected the requests of the delegations, and by the police commissioner Renato Panvino, who visited the principals in person on several occasions to keep the institutional dialogue open. The representatives of the protest underline how the unblocking is an act of responsibility aimed at not penalizing the city's supply, reiterating that the objective remains the economic protection of companies. The sector denounces the unsustainability of the current operating conditions, aggravated by commercial practices considered unfair and by an increase in fuel prices estimated at 50% in just one year. A document was delivered to the Prefecture with three requests: blocked fuel prices for professional road haulage; strong tax relief on contributions to support businesses and employees; reactivation of the Observatory on transport costs. The category specifies that in the absence of concrete answers on the package of requests during the table scheduled for 27 October with the Minister of Infrastructure, the mobilization will be immediately restored.
