"I can't trust a government that doesn't listen to the city."
This was stated by the mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, speaking of the problems of the Municipality in closing the budget due to the Covid emergency without State aid, during the City Council dedicated to this issue which was also attended by Lombard parliamentarians of center-right and center-left.
In recent years the government "has always celebrated Milan as its driving force - he added - for Expo, for the Olympics, for our driving force, for the attractiveness of our universities, a government that now seems so far away".
Sala then recalled that from the government the Municipality of Milan received 478 million in 2020 and 467 in 2021, "and for 2022? The answer from Rome for now is zero or so - said Sala -.
As if the problems were solved in 2022, it is evident that a balanced budget cannot be built with such numbers "." At the moment - he added - we have frozen part of the spending and it is clear that if I am forced to make cuts, I will do it because it is my responsibility.
But I can't help saying that I don't trust a government that doesn't want to face this evidence ".
"The Municipality of Milan benefited, in 2020 and 2021, from a total of about 900 million euros, which allowed the administration to deal with the situation, without interrupting services", writes the Minister for Regional Affairs,
Mariastella Gelmini, in a letter sent to the president of the Milan city council, Elena Buscemi,
in which she informs her of her inability to participate, "due to mandatory institutional commitments", in the council meeting.
Words that sound like a response to the statements of Mayor Sala who said he did not trust "a government that does not listen to the city".