Musumeci: «On Niscemi, I have never received reports. Harry funds, no 'short arms' but a culture of governance»

Minister Nello Musumeci, why is it that in the face of calamities, verbs are always conjugated in the past, shifting responsibilities to those who were there before, or to the future, making promises that are already known to be unkeepable, and no one uses the present?
"Simple and obvious. Because for every calamity, we pay for the lack of prevention in the past and feed the uncertain hopes of reconstruction. Let me explain better. Imagine civil protection as a three-legged table: there is the before, that is prevention; a present, meaning emergency management; and an after, that is post-calamity reconstruction. It is obvious that if in the past you did nothing for prevention, when the calamity arrives, you can only count the dead, injured, and damages. Then reconstruction begins, which is sometimes slow and costly."

Sicily, between cyclone Harry and the landslide in Niscemi, has not missed anything. These are two very different events, yet united by the same root: the inability to implement a prevention policy. Even in this case, past and future verbs?

"In this case, what I just said applies. With one difference: the damages from the cyclone could have been limited if the appropriate defense infrastructures along the coasts had been built in the past. The landslide in Niscemi, however, I fear was unstoppable already after the event of 1997. At least that’s how the technicians of the Cts would have expressed themselves in a report from 2005. It is likely that if the work had been done thirty years ago, that collapse last January would have happened a few years later. But mine is just a supposition."

Regarding Niscemi, you made a very harsh statement: "I would like to know if those houses we saw collapse at the bottom of the ravine were the same houses that were supposed to be demolished thirty years ago." In the end, did you find out anything?
"No. My question arose spontaneously. If after 1997 it was decided to demolish over a hundred houses on that hill and only 25 were demolished, what happened to all the others? When the citizens of Niscemi, in recent weeks, spoke—rightly angry—about their recently renovated or purchased homes, which buildings were they referring to? Are they the same ones we see in the photo on the edge of the ravine or others? I believe it is important to know, it would help us understand why over time someone had an interest in letting the curtain fall on that landslide of 1997, left forgotten for decades."

In the most tumultuous days of the Niscemi emergency, her previous role as president of the Region was invoked multiple times. Aside from the accusations from the opposition, to which she responded in parliament, a document from 2022 emerged mentioning a "very high risk." Regarding the landslide, do you believe you did everything that needed to be done?
"If I remember correctly, the only intervention requested of me by the mayor of Niscemi during my five years in office at the Region was a prompt to repair a landslide-affected provincial road. I immediately intervened with the competent regional director, and the next day the mayor even thanked me. We completed that work in a short time and spent one million two hundred thousand euros, as your newspaper has also noted. But there was never any mention of the landslide danger for the inhabited area. After all, I believe the mayor was in communication with the officials, because that type of intervention does not go through political authority, which is limited to providing only programmatic guidelines. It is the regional technical structures that operate independently: the Civil Protection department, the implementing body of the Structure against landslides, and the Basin Authority. The document from May 2022, published in the Official Gazette, is merely an update of the PAI for that territory. And it states what all the structures and the same Municipality have known for twenty years: a very high-risk area. I do not know what they did afterward, as my term ended in the meantime. I can only tell you, with pride, that under my government, Sicily was the first region in Italy for resources committed against landslides: about 400 million euros."

What is your opinion on the reconstruction of Niscemi? Is it better to build a new town from scratch away from the landslide front or to reuse uninhabited properties to assign to the displaced?
"I have no elements to express myself on the post-landslide situation. The Council of Ministers accepted my proposal to separate the Niscemi case from that of the cyclone and assign it to a special commissioner in the person of the director of the national Civil Protection department. We allocated 150 million and 60 days for the timeline. Based on technical opinions and in agreement with the Municipality and the Region, the commissioner will decide what to do. The important thing is to quickly restore normalcy to all citizens and the right to housing to those who have lost it."

Even regarding the damages from Harry, given that storm surges are no longer exceptional events, there are specific responsibilities. Of those who have "built poorly in the past," as you rightly said. But also of those, both in Rome and Palermo, who have turned a blind eye to the electorate of illegal builders through amnesties and regularizations?
"We Italians are not very inclined to prevention. We do not perceive natural risk; we are fatalistic and sometimes resigned. Now that climate change has made the fragility of our territory more evident, structural prevention should be the priority. At all levels. It is not enough to build quickly but also well, to avoid everything returning to how it was with the next storm surge. As for building amnesties, I remind you that the first amnesty, the most important one, was wanted by the center-left in the 1980s. Decades of devastation of the Italian territory were regularized."

Now, however, it is time to think about recovery. The Meloni government has put over a billion on the table for the damages from the cyclone and for Niscemi, of which an estimated 650 million is directly allocated to Sicily. The Region has allocated another 680 million. Will this be enough to meet all the needs?
"We will see as the money is spent. After all, the funds allocated are not the definitive resource. If more money is needed, the government will intervene, as has happened in the rest of Italy. The concern should be another: how long will it take in the affected areas to spend the money made available?"

Another controversy that has emerged in the first days concerns a supposed short-sightedness of the minister, a Sicilian, regarding the Sicilian emergencies. While on the Island the fantasy figure of damages was rising day by day - from 500 to 700 million; then one billion, in fact two - you invited the Regions to provide a "the most reliable estimate possible." Is this more ministerial realpolitik or Sicilian exaggeration?
"No. It is just ignorance and bad faith from someone. The detailed estimate is required by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the General Accounting Office to calculate the exact impact of the resources on the accounts. It is a task for the technicians, not the minister. Defining the perimeter of the affected area and the number of businesses and families involved is the responsibility of the concerned regions, in collaboration with the national civil protection department. And then, let me say. This story about the minister, because he is Sicilian, should favor his electoral constituency to the detriment of others reminds me a lot of the First Republic: it does not belong to my governing culture."

Minister, can we also talk a bit about Sicilian “politicking” politics?
"Well, yes, if you really insist. But I warn you right away, with a touch of sadness, that I see less and less politics and more and more politickers around. Feel free to ask me."

From her office at Palazzo Chigi, she will come across the stories of our Region: the feuds within the majority, the traps with secret votes, the handouts, the minor reshuffles. Does she feel relief at no longer being entangled or anger for an irredeemable land?
"At my age, I confess that nothing in Sicilian politics surprises me anymore. What you point out are behaviors and methods known in political practice. Some I have even suffered during my government. Clientelism, familialism, and welfare dependency are a sort of anthropological burden that we Sicilians have carried for generations. Fortunately, a serious young leadership and a courageous, dynamic entrepreneurship are also emerging in Sicily. And they give us hope."

In recent years, the moral issue has exploded in the Sicilian center-right. Is it solely the fault of the 'ugly, dirty, and bad' magistrates, or is there perhaps something wrong? Has the bar been lowered from the past five years, not just because of Covid?
"I don't like making comparisons with the past. In the Region, each legislature has its own characteristics and specificities. And each political force behaves according to its own sensitivities. The important thing, I tell my young members of Fratelli d'Italia, is never to let themselves be sodomized by the Palaces of power."

President Schifani aims for a second term and often cites 'the center-right rule of re-nominating incumbents.' He forgets that there was an illustrious exception: his. By the way, does it still sting not to have been able to serve a second term as governor?
"Not at all. You will remember that I was the one who said: if I am divisive, I will take a step aside, to avoid splitting the coalition. And I did it, with a touch of bitterness, of course, but with the serenity of having left a Region better than the one I found. However, I am still waiting to know why I became divisive..."

And does Schifani deserve to succeed himself?
"I don't give grades. I wish President Schifani good luck. He knows that from Meloni's government he has received and will continue to receive everything he asks for the Island. As for the second term, the decision rests with the political forces of the center-right. As you pointed out, there is no longer a rule regarding incumbents in Italy. The previous cases in Sicily in 2022, Molise in 2023, and Sardinia in 2024 demonstrate this."