It is a "beautiful day" for the Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini, it is a "sad day" for the relatives of road victims, according to whom "this reform represents a step backwards for the protection of human life".
The new Highway Code, approved by the Chamber of Deputies with 163 votes in favor and 107 against before the necessary passage to the Senate, starts among the controversies.
The "convinced yes of the League", as Elena Maccanti, rapporteur of the text, says, comes on a text that sees the minister satisfied because "it provides for more checks, more road safety education, more rigor".
Zero tolerance for those who drive while intoxicated or under the influence of drugs, those who drive with their cell phones in their hands risk up to 1,000 euros and the suspension of their license if they repeat the crime.
But there is a very heated controversy over the new issues regarding speed cameras: in the event that multiple fines are received on the same stretch of road, in a period of one hour and under the responsibility of the same body, only one fine is paid, the most serious one increased by one third.
From the M5s, with the deputy Luciano Cantone, the accusation against the majority begins, "you are winking at the various Fleximans", the name under which the authors of the chain of sabotage on the speed cameras on which Salvini had expressed himself are hidden ("bring down the speed cameras is not the solution", he said, we need to "put an end to the wild west of speed cameras").
"You are telling the citizen - says the 5 Star representative - that he can run and speed with impunity for 50 minutes after the first speed camera fine".
Criticism also from the Democratic Party, "we voted with conviction against Minister Salvini's highway code: a rule that looks to the past and not to the future of mobility, which does not respond to the appeal of the families of victims on the road to put safety first , which does not address the issues of speed, inattention and respect for the rules", says Andrea Casu, Pd member in the Transport commission.
In the new text there is a clear 'no' to urban areas at 30 kilometers per hour, and the range of large-displacement cars that new drivers can drive is widened.
A regulatory system which is "a step backwards for the protection of human life" for Paolo Pozzi and Angela Bedoni, parents of Lucia, who was hit and killed at 17 in Melegnano, in the Milan area, among the protagonists of a mobilization of the victims' relatives to the 'Stop the massacre code'.
And the controversy becomes almost 'generational' - between the motorists' party and those of sustainable mobility - on the burning issue of bikes and scooters, with a hoped-for increase in cycle lanes and the obligation for motorists to maintain a distance of one and a half metres. , but also the obligation to have a license plate, helmet and insurance for scooters, but not for bikes, seen as a retaliation against sharing operators: a mix that makes Francesca Ghirra (the Green and Left Alliance) say that "the new rules they inaugurate 'unsafe streets'" and identify "the enemies in bikes and micro mobility".
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