Here are the politicians who have come off badly following the collapse of the investigation. Will they now be able to put things right?

An all-too-easy headline: the ruins of the public prosecutor’s investigation into town planning. An all-too-predictable outcome for anyone who had looked at those court documents without the lens of ill will and ideology. An outcome that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. One might question the plight of entrepreneurs such as Andrea Bezziccheri, who was thrown into prison in August, or an architect such as Stefano Boeri, whose professional reputation has been tarnished, or a property developer such as Manfredi Catella, head of a group, Coima, which deals daily with international markets that know nothing – nor wish to know anything – about the absurdities of our local justice system. One might question the umpteenth attack on Beppe Sala, who had the unpleasant surprise of finding himself surrounded by majority politicians who have no qualms about changing their stance and their views (as with the Meazza stadium project).

However, the ruins are also political, with a large number of candidates (not just on the left) having to come to terms with what has happened. Here, there is no judge who has told the prosecution that the whole edifice of charges has collapsed. Here, it is the prosecution itself that is saying that its entire edifice of charges was unsound, thus avoiding having to hear it from a judge. Tiziana Siciliano, speaking out again after announcing she was standing as a candidate alongside Massimiliano Lisa, and after announcing she had withdrawn her candidacy so as not to harm the prosecution service and the investigation, is quick to point out that, in her day, the charges seemed solid. The political fallout is evidenced by today’s chorus, which obsessively repeats the same refrain: the housing issue is political, not judicial.

It is worth asking why, in the summer of 2025 and even before, this argument was advanced only by those who champion due process and not by those who advocate harsh punishment – who now, horror of horrors, are taking refuge in those wiretaps, the only scandalous thing about which is that they were knowingly leaked. On Fanpage, Lorenzo Pacini argued: “Private chats between the council and the developers? Unacceptable”. The idea that the ‘Milan model’ was a structurally engineered, endemic system of malfeasance. An idea that found its finest media advocate in Gianni Barbacetto. Who, just a few hours after the case against Catella was dismissed, responding to a rumour promptly denied by Coima in Il Domani, declared himself ready (a modern-day David) to take on the Goliath of the property sector.

It is the same ideological framework within which Carlotta Cossutta has operated: Milan as an exclusionary city, the fault of those who wanted it that way. Not an effect stemming from an external cause, occurring in all European cities of Milan’s calibre, but a process of ‘showcasing’ that goes back a long way, to before even the Expo – which, incidentally, marked its official beginning with the ‘pavilion’ concept. Then there is Tommaso Goisis, who, to be fair, has always kept the issues separate: “Setting aside the public prosecutor’s investigations into municipal employees – whom I hope will all be acquitted – the political reality alone is enough for me to say that a radical change is needed in urban planning and in the relationship between the public and private sectors,” he told Il Giorno. Yet the investigation is there, lurking in the background. Finally, there is Pierfrancesco Majorino, who is on the same wavelength as Goisis (or vice versa), and who commented on the case being dropped by referring to it as a political rather than a judicial matter, though he has exchanged sharp words with Catella on several occasions.

If one were to take a family photo, the one lying beneath the rubble shows a sizeable chunk of the left-wing majority that, a year ago, was demonstrating in support of Leonka and against Beppe Sala, ‘against gentrification, for the right to housing, and against property speculation’. What about Silvia Sardone’s Lega, which had called for everyone to resign just as the investigation was getting underway and when it was the only opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to due process? Or Fratelli d’Italia, which followed suit in calling for resignations, albeit with Ignazio La Russa drawing a distinction between the judicial and political spheres? For all of them – not just Majorino, who is the strongest candidate on the left wing of the coalition – the same question applies: do the outcomes of this affair call into question the notion that developers are profiteers, unsavoury characters with whom one shouldn’t even have a coffee? Would all the far-left candidates be prepared to sit down at the same table as the property developers to discuss the future of Milan? And what about those on the right? If the answer is yes, perhaps something can emerge from those ruins.