"I never swept anything under the carpet, I don't think Fontana was referring to me," said Milan Mayor Beppe Sala. This is how the controversy over security in the Lombard capital was fueled today, with the highest tension after the rape reported yesterday by a girl, a violence that would have taken place inside a disco in Via Padova.
"My election campaign was also based on hiring new traffic policemen, which we are doing," Sala reiterated today. "I did not understand if more people are coming from the government - he continued - We are waiting for Minister Piantedosi on Wednesday. What I have asked for is an equivalence between the economic effort we are making and an equal amount of police officers and carabinieri. And I don't think that's happening," he concluded.
Minister Matteo Piantedosi will be in Milan for a meeting of the Public Order and Security Committee. The president of the Region Attilio Fontana triggered Sala's reaction by claiming that for years it has been said that talking about a security emergency is political speculation: "let's stop saying that everything is fine", he said. "Unfortunately they tried to sweep the dirt under the carpet and now it pops up. If they had noticed it earlier, we would not have reached this level – he added – Now it is clear that we must intervene and rigorously because the situation is worrying. We will ask the minister for the possibility of increasing the number of representatives of the police - he concluded - and I will insist that we resume using the Army".