“The Olympics will be Italy’s showcase in the world“. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this to the Italian companies gathered at Villa Pamphili to talk about the Milan-Cortina 2026 project and encourage future partnerships.
Alarms are emerging these days about delays, and not just for the Games. Yesterday CONI announced its withdrawal from the organizing committee of the 2026 Mediterranean Games, prompting the governor Emiliano to press the government to allocate the funds, and today to the news that the tender for the bobsleigh track for Milan has been deserted – Cortina reacted the government. “It’s the market, but we are confident”, said the sports minister, Andrea Abodi, while Daniela Santanche’, head of Tourism, says she is certain that “Italy will make it, as it was for the Milan Expo”.
In reality, the low number of sponsorships is more central than the infrastructure issue. So in the afternoon half of the government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, met possible future partners at Villa Pamphili, to illustrate the Winter Olympics project and all the possible advantages of sponsorship. In addition to the premier, the minister of sport, Andrea Abodi, the president of Coni, Giovanni Malago’, spoke to the managers of some of the major Italian companies. Present were the minister of tourism, Santanche’, that of agriculture, Lollobrigida, and also the head of justice, Nordio.
According to what is learned, Meloni stressed to his listeners that the “”The Olympics are a great opportunity to once again demonstrate to the world who we are” and to remind “us, because this is a nation where many tend to get overwhelmed from a sort of Calimero syndrome for which we are never enough, we don’t know how to do it, we can’t do it. You, on the other hand, know that we can do it because there is another part of the nation that demonstrates its worth every day, despite the difficulties”. And he recalled how much this means “for our economic system, for our production chains, for the excellence of our products, of our industrial system”.
In the morning, Abodi had instead expressed confidence in the delays.
“When organizing something so complex, concern accompanies us day and night, because out of a sense of responsibility we need to keep the level of sensitivity high.
But we are relatively confident”. The Winter Olympic Games which will take place in Lombardy and Veneto in three years’ time are experiencing delays in the construction of infrastructures. For the sports minister, the lack of offers “is part of the risks of a saturated market” as ” right now there are so many works and so many construction sites”. The solution therefore seems to be “the negotiated procedure which was activated immediately in agreement with the Minister of Infrastructure”. “It will be resolved through the relationship with the market which is regulated by the rules but it allows us to be more effective directly with those who will have to build the runway”, adds Abodi. “Italy will make it, as it was for the Milan Expo”, says Daniela Santanche’, minister of the Tourism, on the sidelines of the presentation of the European Volleyball Championships.
“The tender was deserted, now it will be possible to go to a direct assignment”, echoes the mayor of Cortina, Gianluca Lorenzi, underlining that “it has already happened recently that a tender for parking was deserted but we have remodulated it, and it has been assigned “.
Yesterday, however, CONI announced that it was leaving the organizing committee for the Mediterranean Games scheduled for Taranto in 2026. A decision by President Giovanni Malagò in the face of the “persistent and unresolved state of impasse which has led to obvious delays in the infrastructural works” and which “allows us to resume our journey in everyone’s interest”.
The attempt to unblock the impasse also involves the governor of Puglia, Michele Emiliano. “CONI’s exit is the consequence of the uncertainties regarding the funding of the Games by the government”, underlines the president of the Region, reiterating “the willingness to find an agreement with the executive that allows the latter to remove any hesitation meet the commitments made with Coni, with the Puglia Region, with the Municipality of Taranto and with the Apulian municipalities of the Organizing Committee”. “In the last meeting with Ministers Fitto and Abodi – he continues – the Puglia Region had expressed, at the request of Minister Abodi, its willingness to integrate the Organizing Committee with the attendance deemed necessary by the Government in order to release the funding, also offering its willingness to pay the sum of 40 million euros within its competence as soon as the share of the Development and Cohesion Fund has been assigned by Minister Lease”.
“President Malagó’s reaction – concludes Emiliano – is openly intended to favor an understanding that avoids a bad impression on Italy, Puglia and Taranto and excessive difficulty in building the facilities necessary for the Games”.
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