What do those who live in the Madonie need, one of the areas of Sicily
and Italy that has been most depopulated due to the lack of services?Roads worthy of the name, health facilities that do not force you to
take on dozens of kilometers for the most banal of care interventions,
schools and training institutes that can allow young people to stay,
dignified jobs that do not rhyme with exploitation and force you to
emigrate, valorizing the resources of the territory? No, in the Madonie
what is needed is a beautiful astronomical observatory, proposed by the
European Space Agency (ESA) and endorsed by local institutions, that can
exploit the clear sky of the Madonie mountains and bring, why not, a bit
of bourgeois and right-thinking tourism as already happens for the
nearby Gal Hassin, the astronomical center of Isnello, which offers
tickets from 15 euros with no discounts even for disabled people and
university professors.
Let's go in order. It was May 25, 2018 when ESA chose to place the
Flyeye telescope (fly's eye, whatever) on Mount Mufara, one of the most
famous peaks of the Madonie, with the aim of detecting and monitoring
celestial objects of size equal to or greater than 40 meters that risk
impacting the Earth's surface. The project presented involves a surface
area of 800 square meters, with 3,540 cubic meters of building volume
and a height of over 13 meters above ground, with the construction of a
new carriageway for access to the intact summit of the mountain. Rooms
not directly connected to research are also planned: offices, services,
staff accommodation, parking. To access the construction site, a
significant intervention will have to be carried out on the forestry
track that leads from Piano Battaglia to Mount Mufara crossing the
state-owned beech forest.
All this would be carried out not only in the full A zone of the
integral reserve of the Madonie Park, which provides for the integral
protection of the territory, but even in areas where it is absolutely
forbidden to build. But, as we have seen in the case of the Muos built
inside the Sughereta di Niscemi nature reserve, faced with economic
interests the State is happy not to respect its own laws. For this
reason, a mobilization in support of Mount Mufara immediately began, led
by some of the most well-known environmental associations - Club Alpino
Italiano, Legambiente, Lipu and WWF. Over the years, the associations
have presented six complaints to the courts, contesting a complex and
well-known procedure for all those infrastructures that are considered
strategic, from the aforementioned Muos to the Bridge over the Straits
up to, precisely, the Flyeye telescope on Mount Mufara: the imposition
from above and the regulatory forcing or, better said, the monopoly of
bureaucracy by the State that allows the reasons of any critical voice
to be excluded. When, despite everything, one manages to hinder or slow
down any project, one intervenes directly: either with the repression of
those who oppose and/or with the introduction of new laws that "fill"
the previous gaps. This last case is what happened in the Madonie, as
can be learned in a detailed article published by the Montagna Sud blog,
which "talks about mountains in Sicily from the perspective of
sustainability". Five years of agreements made behind the scenes,
retracted promises, blackmail. In the first months of 2023, for example,
ESA threatened that if the game was not unblocked as soon as possible,
it would implement the project in the Canary Islands, throwing the
institutions that strongly support that project into panic - from the
Madonie Park to all the municipalities involved (Petralia Sottana,
Petralia Soprana, Castellana Sicula, Bompietro and Isnello).
In March 2023, Montagna Sud recalls, "the mayors of the Madonie
municipalities wrote a public letter expressing their support for the
project as a great opportunity for development and work for the area.
Too bad that the observatory will not provide work for anyone, being
managed remotely via fiber optics. The structure will normally be
uninhabited". In August 2023, the providential contribution of the
Meloni government arrives, with another unworthy procedural forcing. The
method has now been tested for years by all governments: a decree law is
taken, which in theory should be created only for urgent and specific
cases, and an ad hoc rule is attached to it that has nothing to do with
the rest of the provision. This is what happens with the so-called Asset
and Investment decree, in which the Madonie astronomical observatory is
declared a strategic project, which is not subject to the landscape
constraints of national laws. Almost a year goes by, two more complaints
from environmental associations, also unheard, and in May of this year
the Madonie Park issues the clearance, without however asking for the
opinion of the technical-scientific committee, which would also be
mandatory. In the face of progress, there is no law that holds. And so
on August 27, the excavation work begins, just enough time for the
environmental associations to turn to the Regional Administrative Court
with an immediate request for a stay. It seems more like a formality,
yet on September 4, unexpectedly, the TAR temporarily blocks the work,
with the motivation of the "prevalent interest in the environmental
protection of the site in terms of maintaining its current integrity". A
joy that, however, does not last long. On September 24, the TAR
definitively rejects the appeal and puts an end to a convoluted and
emblematic affair for the time being. If the associations promise
further battle, evaluating an appeal to the European Court of Justice,
from the Sicilian Region comes an appreciation that feels like
game-over. "We have always believed and are strongly convinced that the
work represents a unique opportunity for the development of astronomical
research and for the strengthening of the Madonie territory as a point
of reference for science and technology" says President Schifani. No
mention of forms of environmental compensation, no mention of the
alleged economic and employment advantages of the work, only vague
hopes. If we really want to try to prevent its construction, we will
need to change strategy, without leaving the direction solely to
environmental associations and encouraging a grassroots mobilization
that can implement direct and creative actions.
Andrea Turco
http://sicilialibertaria.it
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