In the light of the riots on the 3rd of July (I was there, but not rioting) here is some background information.
What was this all about?
About a new railway connection in Val di Susa, that will connect the high-speed railway network in Italy to that of France, and would reduce travelling time between France and Italy with 2 hours. The railway will run for a large part underground. The costs of the construction will be shared between the European Union, Italy and France.
Sounds good.
That having a fast and mostly underground connection between Italy and France is an improvement to the present situation is almost unanimously agreed upon. The problem lies with the construction. Criticism revolves around (1) the impact on the local environment and (2) the high costs, which would not weigh up against the benefits.
So what about the impact on the environment?
The mountains in Val di Susa contain asbestos, and perhaps Uranium as well, and there are doubts if the extraction, transport and stockage of these materials will be done safely. Apart from that, millions of tons of rock will have to be transported in a construction process that is planned to take more than 20 years. Local population is therefore worried about effects on tourism, property prices, and just the plain nuisance of having thousands of trucks pass through the valley.
And the costs?
The official estimate of the costs of the construction is 12 billion euros, and it is quite probable that the actual costs will turn out to be higher. At about 1% of the GDP, these are considerable.
Opponents of the construction argue that these costs are not in any way related to the benefits, and argue that the decision to build the tunnel was taken on the basis of predictions made twenty years ago that have proven to be mistaken.
So what happened the 3rd of july?
The riots occurred around the construction site near Chiomonte where a first "exploratory tunnel" is being constructed - the first step in the construction of the actual tunnel. To safeguard European subsidies, work on this tunnel had to start on the first of July.
The place of the construction site had been occupied by no-TAV movement for the past months, who have been forcefully removed by the police on june 28th.
The 3rd of July thousands (the police speak of 7.000, the organizers of 50.000) of mostly peaceful protesters marched towards the construction site, where they clashed with more than 1.000 policemen stationed there.
In the early afternoon, the scene deteriorated in a very violent one, especially in the steep woods above the construction site. Protesters threw rocks, and the police used teargas. According to the police, 200 policemen were hurt, of which 2 or 3 seriously. One policeman was "captured" and later released. It is by now well documented that the police fired tear gas canisters directly at the protesters, but there are no official figures about the number of wounded among the protesters.
So what is this no-TAV movement?
The no-TAV (TAV = Treno ad Alta Velocità = High-Speed Train) movement started as a local protest movement, but has now formed a somewhat unlikely coalition with the squatter movement (which is still strong in Italy), and with a number of high-profile left-wing intellectuals. They have found support in Italy in the protest movement of Beppe Grillo, and seem to find, in general, a growing attention and sympathy among the general population.
They are effective users of social media and the internet (search for "argomenti pro TAV" in Italian, and you will find almost exclusively arguments against), and like to compare themselves to the protest movements in North-Africa and the Middle East. In their communications, they combine highhanded rhetoric with a sense of humor (for example, they use an angry old man waving his fist as a symbol), something quite rare in Italian politics.
Partly as a reaction to the uncompromising attitude of local and national politics, and the heavy-handed reaction of the police force, the no-TAV movement seems to radicalize (after the events of July 3rd, they have adopted "we are all black block" as a slogan).
What else do I need to know?
After the scandals of "mani puliti" and the years of government under Berlusconi, general trust in politicians in Italy is at all-time low.
The opinion that building the tunnel is a good thing is about the only point of agreement between the governing parties and the opposition, and this fact alone is enough to make many Italians suspicious.
In this case, these suspicions might not be unfounded. For example, two main players in the construction of high-speed railway in Italy are two large companies: Rocksoil and CMC. Rocksoil, which is already involved in the construction in Val di Susa, is the property of Lunardi, who was a minister of Infrastructure for 5 years under Berlusconi. CMC, which is likely to benefit as well, is a "cooperativa" that has close ties with the main left-wing party, the Partito Democratico.
So, are they going to build that tunnel?
It is hard to say. Most political forces seem to move towards construction. Italian politicians have almost unanimously declared themselves strongly in favor, and there is pressure from the European Union, and from France, in favor of the project. Also, there is, not surprisingly, a strong industrial lobby in Italy that is in favor of the project.
On the other hand, spending 12 billion of Euros on a project with a dubious value is hard to sell in a time where large cuts in spending are being pushed through parliament.
Furthermore, there is also a practical problem. There is no reason to think that opposition in Val di Susa will diminish, and it would be very easy for the protesters to make the work on the tunnel very expensive, or even impossible, by, for example, blocking the traffic through the narrow valley.
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