A 3.3-kilometer suspension bridge is supposed to connect Sicily with mainland Italy. But authorities still haven’t secured the funding needed for the project and there’s opposition from environmentalists and residents.
00:00The three kilometer wide Strait of Messina separates Sicily from mainland Italy.
00:06A plan to build the world's longest suspension bridge here is intended to unite Europe.
00:12It has also been a source of strife for decades.
00:16This bridge will finally make it possible to travel by train from Helsinki to Palermo.
00:23450 families on both sides of the Strait would lose their homes.
00:33Hundreds of thousands of migrating birds would die every year.
00:41Who really needs this bridge?
00:45And who stands to gain from it?
00:50We're in Messina to find out.
00:56Daniel Yellacqua belongs to the No Ponte Action Group, which hopes to stop the bridge's construction.
01:02This neighborhood would be razed flat.
01:08All these houses would have to make way for the bridge.
01:12All the way up the hill.
01:14They would first be expropriated and then demolished.
01:18That transmission tower back there is about 200 meters tall.
01:22The bridge pylon they want to build here would be almost twice that.
01:26In Messina and in Calabria on the mainland, some 450 families would lose their homes.
01:34One of them is Rosa Catafi, who moved here 11 years ago.
01:38I'm not planning on leaving here.
01:44I made a lot of sacrifices to buy this house.
01:46This is where I want to live, where I want to grow old.
01:50I'm retiring in a year.
01:54And I've got a lot of projects here.
01:56But we're not giving up hope.
01:58And we'll fight to the end.
02:00For now, people still take the ferry.
02:06It's a 20 minute crossing.
02:08If the bridge is built, crossing would only take a few minutes.
02:12It would be the world's longest suspension bridge.
02:16Even ancient Romans dreamed of connecting Sicily to the mainland.
02:20If the Italian government's plans go ahead, their dream will finally become reality.
02:25The Noponta campaigners fear that a project of this magnitude, worth over 13 billion euros, will also attract crime.
02:33This bridge would not only connect the Sicilian Mafia and the Ndrangheta on the Calabrian mainland, but 30 other Mafia groups too.
02:42Messina could become like 1930 Chicago, where people shoot each other because everyone wants in on the action.
02:48But in Rome, Transport Minister Matteo Salvini from the right-wing Lega party is the giant bridge's biggest supporter.
02:57He sees it as a strategic European infrastructure project.
03:01That's why he even tried to fund it in parts with money from NATO's defense budget.
03:07We anticipate 6,000 vehicles per hour and 200 trains per day.
03:14The added value, apart from the 13.5 billion euros in investment costs, would be around 23 billion euros.
03:23In addition, the state could generate more than 10 billion euros in direct and indirect revenue.
03:28And 120,000 jobs would be created.
03:31Salvini would not speak to journalists that day.
03:35The Italian court of audit has since halted the project, raising doubts about the planned financing and pointing to violations of EU competition rules.
03:44But Salvini is not giving up on his bridge.
03:49And there's another problem the government faces. Migratory birds.
03:58This is one of the most important migratory bird flyways.
04:01A single bird's death can have catastrophic effects on the whole European bird population.
04:07Ana Giordano has been defending these birds for 40 years.
04:11The bridge is planned to be built in a protected bird reserve, which would violate several EU guidelines.
04:18When migratory birds arrive here, they often have to fight strong winds.
04:25These winds can throw them against anything.
04:28Cliffs, steel cables or huge bridge pylons.
04:32Imagine how many would die.
04:37In the hills above Messina, Ana and other volunteers have been caring for injured birds for years.
04:43Many are migratory birds who were injured during their journey south along the Strait of Messina,
04:48or were simply too weak to continue.
04:51Today, she's releasing some of the birds they've rescued.
04:54The bridge, she says, would be disastrous not only for the environment, but also for the federal budget.
05:01Imagine having a house with no roof, no bathroom, and no kitchen.
05:07And then you spend the little money you have on a pool table.
05:10What a waste!
05:12And so, Ana will fight on.
05:15For the birds, and against the Italian government's grand prestige project.
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