Bridge over the Strait, Salvini changes course: "No more deadlines month by month." But 2026 remains the key year.

Bridge or no bridge? The soap opera that has lasted for 50 years has recently been enriched with juicy episodes involving resurrected projects, approved plans, and rejected budgets, proclamations, and rejections. So many of those stop & go moments that now Matteo Salvini stops pointing the finger at the calendar: "I no longer give monthly deadlines... I hope this is the year the work begins." A clear change in tone, pronounced in front of Bruno Vespa at LetExpo 2026, which captures the exact point where the project of the Bridge over the Strait of Messina stands: suspended between industrial ambition, administrative knots, and a new, more cautious political grammar. Behind the choice to "turn off" the monthly countdown are the appeals, the interactions with the Court of Auditors, environmental observations, and the no committees: all variables that, more than the renderings, truly determine the timing of a project worth over 13.5 billion.

What the minister really said

No "monthly deadline" for the start of the bridge construction sites: the priority is to "see the documents" after months of inspections and disputes. The political hope is to make 2026 "the year the work begins." These are messages that mark a tactical retreat from the realm of dates and, at the same time, reassert national control over major maritime infrastructure.

The context that changed the narrative: the Court of Auditors' stop

At the end of October 2025, the Court of Auditors did not grant the "visa of legitimacy" nor the registration for the CIPESS resolution number 41/2025, which approved the final project and allocated key resources from the Development and Cohesion Fund. A step that "turned off" the administrative green light and forced the Government to recalibrate the process. Among the issues highlighted by the accounting magistrates: the way in which the concerns regarding the VIncA (Impact Assessment) were intended to be overcome through the IROPI report; the need for clarifications on coverages and admissible economic variations; and the absence of a sufficiently stringent evaluation of the environmental "alternatives" in the project.

The decision had political and financial repercussions: in the 2026 budget, a portion of funding (approximately 700–780 million) has been pushed further back, to 2033, with the clarification – from the Strait of Messina company – that this is not a "defunding", but a temporal realignment of the spending framework based on the process.

The project today: between CIPESS green light and phases to be recomposed

On August 6 of last year, the CIPESS approved the final project for the stable connection between Calabria and Sicily, including the works program, the outcomes of the Conference of Services, the conclusions of the VIA Commission of the MASE, the economic-financial plan, and the certification of the coverage of the need, estimated at around €13.5 billion. However, that approval has remained without a “visa” and accounting registration. The effect is a de facto suspension of administrative effectiveness, which explains the minister's new cautious approach.

On the industrial side, the general contractor is the Eurolink consortium, led by Webuild (which in 2023 appointed Gianni De Gennaro as president of the general contractor). The supply chain claims to be “ready” as soon as the framework and acts get back on track.

The numbers that matter: cost, coverage, cash movements

The value of the investment is approximately €13.5 billion according to the final project 2025 and the files from the MIT and Stretto di Messina S.p.A. However, the accounting documents and the same motivations from the Court of Auditors raise the issue of “variations” and the perimeter beyond which obligations for new tenders would kick in, especially if certain percentage thresholds were exceeded. All profiles that, more than proclamations, shape the “construction timelines.”

The possible agenda: from the official schedule to the realistic window

In the official documents of Stretto di Messina – following the Program Agreement of July 16, 2025 – the three-year period 2026–2027 is indicated as the horizon for the foundation activities of towers and anchors and for the start of the accessory works, with the actual “crossing work” planned for later. In the meantime, on February 10, 2026, CEO Pietro Ciucci confirmed the goal of starting the “implementation phase” by summer 2026, rejecting the idea of extending the timeline and recalling the absence of a EU infringement procedure. These are windows that remain conditioned by the restructuring of the acts currently “blocked” and by the outcomes of the disputes.