Why Milan is not safe. The public prosecutor’s office will press ahead with trials that will come to nothing in criminal terms

Once the dust has settled on the ruins left by the Milan public prosecutors’ botched investigation into “urban planning democracy”, the unpleasant (but predictable) surprise will be that Milan will not be saved, the thousands of families left homeless will not be saved, and the crucial property sector will not be able to recover. This was announced yesterday, with a great sense of ‘lock-them-up’ relief, by Il Fatto and Repubblica, but the mechanism is well known. The investigation into ‘systemic corruption’ will meet the end it deserves, but the public prosecutor’s office is determined to press ahead with the cases concerning some fifty building sites – only a fraction of which have already been closed down – on the basis of the same alleged offences: planning offences for having built (or requested to build) using a SCIA (Certified Notice of Commencement of Works) rather than an implementation plan, alleged unauthorised land subdivisions, and so on. All this despite the fact that the first two trials to reach a verdict – ‘Torre Milano’ and ‘Via Fauché’ – saw the defendants acquitted because, in essence, the ‘good faith’ of the builders and officials involved was recognised.

In short: it has been acknowledged that the rules applied were simply those currently in force and recognised by all, within a highly complex legal framework. The trial relating to the first of all the investigations, ‘Hidden Garden’, is currently underway; we shall see the outcome. However, it is likely that all the investigations which the public prosecutor’s office will pursue using the same approach will result, from a criminal law perspective, in acquittals. However, this will not save the building sites; seizures will continue, as will requests for the annulment of building permits already issued. Legal proceedings will drag on for years. Furthermore, there will still be no mechanism to resolve legal disputes: namely, a new building law that nobody is getting round to drafting. When the government and the PD itself – including Mayor Sala – culpably abandoned the ‘Salva Milano’ scheme, the damage done was perhaps irreparable. Not to mention the new amendments to Milan’s General Urban Plan (PGT) recently approved by the City Council, which bear a striking resemblance to a capitulation to the public prosecutor’s arguments.