President Meloni’s statement on seventh anniversary of the earthquake in central Italy

“Seven years have passed since the terrible earthquake that hit central Italy at 3.36am on 24 August 2016. On that awful night, a powerful tremor triggered a succession of destruction that went on until early 2017, involving an extremely vast area of our nation. Four regions were affected, more than three hundred lives were lost, hundreds were injured, tens of thousands of people had to evacuate and entire towns and villages were destroyed or seriously damaged. We all carry those wonderful, inspirational places – from Amatrice to Norcia, from Accumoli to Arquata, from Visso to Castelsantangelo sul Nera, from Ussita to Pescara del Tronto, and many more – in our hearts. A real catastrophe that will forever remain in our collective memory. On this anniversary, we renew our condolences for the victims and our sympathy for their families and loved ones.

Unfortunately, seven years on from the earthquake, the reconstruction work is still not complete. It is an open wound that still hurts. More than fourteen thousand families are still living away from their homes, many areas are struggling to get back to normality and there are several delays that need to be overcome and critical issues that remain to be addressed. The Government is working to bring about a change of pace, from regulations to construction sites. The teamwork between Minister for Civil Protection Musumeci, Commissioner [for post-earthquake reconstruction in central Italy] Castelli and the Commissioner’s unit, the regional authorities involved and the 138 ‘crater Municipalities’ is yielding good results. Over the last few months, after the pandemic years and price shock due to inflation, new impetus has been given to private reconstruction work, and the foundations have been laid to speed up public reconstruction work by streamlining procedures and providing implementing bodies with concrete support to design and develop public works projects. This work is accompanied by a priority commitment to improve road infrastructure in the areas of the Central Apennines, which have been forgotten and neglected for too many years now, with investments amounting to a billion euros, and to create the conditions for new economic and social activities. From this point of view, the timely progress and results of the ‘NextAppennino’ programme, which is funded by the NRRP’s National Complementary Plan for the areas affected by the 2009 and 2016 earthquakes, is proving that it is indeed possible to spend public resources, encouraging private investments and laying the foundations for new development. 

Much remains to be done to fulfill our compatriots’ longing to carry on living in the places they were born and raised. The Central Apennines are the heart of Italy and those who live there are a proud and resilient people. It is our duty to support this process of social and economic revival with concrete responses and effective measures, because rebuilding the earthquake-affected areas is not only a moral obligation of the institutions, but can also be an extraordinary driver for the national economy. This is a huge challenge but one which, all together, we can overcome”. 

[Courtesy translation]