05.06.2020 – 12.15 – The news of the declaration of incompatibility, and therefore of the revocation of Zeno D’Agostino from his position as President of the Port System Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea, the ports of Trieste and Monfalcone, could come straight from some dystopian television series: D’Agostino, who has held this position since 2016, could not do it because he is president, since 2015, also of the Trieste Terminal Passeggeri, for which the same Harbour Authority is a shareholder (in a live-stream, the Prefect of Trieste Valerio Valenti has underlined that D’Agostino would no longer be the president of TTP, Terminal Passeggeri, but still of the Harbour Authority; aspects still to clarify in definitive way).
However, the Anac or National Anti-Corruption Authority, emanation of the Severino law of 2012, coming from its streaming event for the sixth national meeting day with those in charge for the prevention of corruption and transparency, only now realizes this issue, after five years: a strange coincidence that follows of little hours the request, by the opposition in the Regional Council, of a clarification on the question of the free points. Free points that are again dormant after the hopes of two years ago of unblocking them.
The Anac, as an administrative authority with tasks of integrity protection, control and fight against corruption, should have a preventive rather than a repressive function, according to its principles; however, it began activity in a rather troubled way, and after the nomination of Raffaele Cantone by the government of Matteo Renzi, Cantone himself, in disagreement with Giuseppe Conte, resigned, and the body is now governed since October 2019 ad interim by Francesco Merloni, born in 1947, professor of administrative law at the University of Perugia.
Roles and contexts very far from those linked to the reality and flourishing activity of the port of the Julian capital, which under the guidance of its very popular president Zeno D’Agostino – the professionalism and ability of which has been recognized by all political parties in the city and the Friuli Venezia – Giulia Region – has become a leading port of call in the European economic scenario (among the top 10) and is projected towards a future of further revival that the city, after decades of previous passivity, seemed to have forgotten. D’Agostino would have finished his term in November.
If the situation will not be clarified as soon as possible – and this is what was immediately requested by Francesco Russo, who involved the Minister for Infrastructure Paola De Micheli and the Mayor Roberto Dipiazza, and Debora Serracchiani of the Democratic Party (messages of solidarity and requests for clarification from all political forces are gradually coming in, and an urgent plead to the Regional Administrative Court with the request for suspension of the measure is being prepared) – it would open up a scenario of freezing opportunities for the development of traffic, in a phase in which the city is directly affected by the Covid-19 in terms of cancellation of all tourist revenues for this year.
In addition, there are hypotheses that the agreements signed from 2016 to today, also at international level, are not valid: a guillotine that now threatens to fall not so much on the agreements for the New Silk Road, which at the moment remain at the pre-intended level, but on the collaboration with Hungary and with the ports of Germany and Northern Europe, and on the already started activities of logistics and railway infrastructure as well as on the upgrade of the Ferriera di Servola area and the relocation of the workforce.
Zeno D’Agostino also received immediate solidarity from Governor Massimiliano Fedriga and the Minister for Economic Development, Stefano Patuanelli: “It is unthinkable that Zeno D’Agostino will no longer be president,” Patuanelli said earlier.
A surreal situation that is endangering the economic future of our port and which we hope will be resolved as soon as possible, in the interests of Trieste and the whole Region.
Author: Roberto Srelz
Michael Guggenbichler translation
