Italy’s Prime Minister Vows Speedier L’Aquila Reconstruction
Prime Minister Draghi speaks at L’Aquila
By Nancy DeSanti
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi traveled to L’Aquila on September 28, 2021, to inaugurate a park in memor y of the 309 victims of the ear thquake that devastated the Abruzzo capital in 2009. More impor tantly, he also promised major funding to help reconstruct L’Aquila. “My presence ser ves first of all to reaffirm the dut y of remembrance. The 2009 ear thquake belongs to the collective memor y and to the world,” the Prime Minister said at the inauguration of the Parco della Memoria de L’Aquila.
“ We cannot forget, we must not forget,” he said, calling the victims “309 angels.” Earlier this year, Italy marked the 12th anniversar y of the 6.3-magnitude ear thquake that struck L’Aquila in the early hours of April 6, 2009, killing 309 people, leaving 70,000 homeless and devastating more than 50 villages in the central Abruzzo region. “ We must accelerate [funding], for the moral obligation we have towards all of you citizens. And we must do it to help the economic recover y of these areas. The 2009 ear thquake caused an estimated loss of over 200 million euros per year. About 11% of the total added value of the area, to which the damage of the pandemic has been added,” Draghi said.
The Prime Minister noted that in the cit y of L’Aquila, the renovation of private buildings has now exceeded 80 percent, thanks also to the introduction of innovative techniques. The delays mainly affect the public reconstruction process. “I’m talking about schools, hospitals, streets, offices and churches, those buildings that make a place a communit y,” Draghi said. He stated that 1.78 billion euros in funding, drawn from Italy’s national recover y and resilience plan (PNRR), would be allocated to the central Italian areas hit by ear thquakes in 2009, 2016 and 2017, with the funding to be used for “safe and sustainable reconstruction, environmental recover y, and initiatives to suppor t citizens and businesses.”
