Farm Minister Francesco Lollobrigida
has been slammed for allegedly using a high-speed train for his
personal needs.
Il Fatto Quotidiano daily published the story on its front page
Wednesday saying that the minister, who was travelling from Rome
to crime-ridden Naples backwater Caivano, had got on the
Turin-Salerno Frecciarossa at Termini but then made it make a
special stop at Ciampino because it was 111 minutes late, in
order to continue on his way by car.
Former premier and centrist Italia Viva (IV) party leader Matteo
Renzi and the leftwing populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) were among
those calling for Lollobrigida to quit over the alleged personal
use of public transport, while many critics compared his
behaviour to the Marchese del Grillo, an iconic Alberto Sordi
comic aristocratic character known for his high-handed dismissal
of common mortals.
M5S leader and former premier Giuseppe Conte said Lollobrigida's
conduct "sends a devastating signal" while the M5S deputy House
whip, Agostino Santillo, said "someone who stops a train as if
it was his own property must resign".
Green leader Angelo Bonelli said it must be established if
Lollobrigida committed abuse of office while Più Europa (More
Europe) leader Riccardo Magi said "if it's true that
Lollobrigida got a train to stop for his own convenience then he
must explain himself in parliament".
The leader of the biggest opposition party, Elly Schlein of the
centre-left Democratic Pary (PD), said "not everyone can afford
the luxury of getting a train to stop," adding "I find
Lollobrigida's behaviour arrogant and indecent," and saying that
the PD had filed a parliamentary question on the incident.
But the minister's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party said
that the flak directed at him was "disgraceful" and
"unacceptable" and said he had only made sure he could get to an
important event like the opening of a park in Caivano, which the
government is trying to clean up after the July youth gang rape
of two young cousins, "without in any way provoking any damage
to the other passengers".
This was confirmed by rail company Trenitalia which said
passengers had not been negatively impacted by the incident.
"The stop at Ciampino did not cause any further delays for
travellers, nor repercussions on traffic, nor additional costs
for the company", stated the rail company.
"The train stopped shortly after Roma Termini because of what
was happening on the line and the diversion via Cassino was also
decided in view of the stop already planned at Naples Afragola,"
Trenitalia went on.
"After the restart, the train stopped at Ciampino station, where
the institutional figures on board got off, in order to meet
institutional commitments," Trenitalia explained.
Lollobrigida himself said the unscheduled stop had been open to
all the passengers aboard and not just him.
"The train stopped at Ciampino, where an extraordinary stop was
made available for everyone to disembark, as per the
announcement made on the train, and not just for me as some have
reported", he said.
He added that Trenitalia had already made it clear that "the
Ciampino stop did not entail any additional disruption or costs
of any kind, nor any risk or further delay for anyone."
He reiterated that "it was an extraordinary stop that, when
extraordinary cases occur, Trenitalia usually makes and that was
announced and available to all passengers."
Il Marchese del Grillo ("The Marquess Del Grillo",
internationally released as The Marquis of Grillo) is a 1981
comedy directed by the great Mario Monicelli, starring great
comic actor Sordi as the title character.
The film depicts very early nineteenth-century episodes in the
life of a nobleman in Rome amid the Napoleonic occupation.
Loosely based on folklore accounts of the real Onofrio del
Grillo (who lived in the eighteenth century), the character
plays a number of pranks, one even involving Pope Pius VII, and
memorably swaps lives with a drunken coal seller who is his
spitting image.
The film's most famous line 'Io sò io, e voi non siete un cazzo'
(literally "I am who I am, and you are fucking nobody"), is
appropriated from great Roman dialect poet Gioachino Belli's
1831 sonnet, "The Sovrans of the Old World".
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