Autostrade officials have declined to discuss what caused the collapse but say the company spared no expense for safety. In the last three and a half years alone, the company reported spending more than $10 million maintaining and repairing the bridge. Five Star has long denounced Italy’s spate of privatizations, most of which occurred in the 1990s, as sweetheart deals between politicians and their friends. In that regard, the life and death of the Morandi Bridge is a parable of Italy’s current economic and political mess, and how it got there. And it has collapsed as Italy’s economy is stagnating and the politics that produced privatization are the object of populist scorn.

Source: New York Times March 05, 2019 21:11 UTC