Southern Italy truckers ease blockades as Meloni prepares fuel-cost aid

Truckers in southern Italy eased blockades on 22 October after talks with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government, with roadblocks set to lift in Sicily and protests suspended in Calabria. Deliveries remained disrupted in Campania, where fuel shortages were also affecting access to healthcare in Naples, according to Reuters and POLITICO Europe.

Hauliers’ representatives said the Sicily roadblocks would be lifted following the talks. Vincenzo Parisi, speaking for hauliers in the Campania region around Naples, told RAI public radio he hoped blockades there could be lifted later on 22 October, Reuters reported. POLITICO said supplies were beginning to resume in Sicily and Calabria while disruption continued in Campania.

How the roadblocks disrupted deliveries

Federdistribuzione, the retailers’ association, said hundreds of supermarkets and dozens of distribution centres were affected, POLITICO reported. Its president, Carlo Alberto Buttarelli, estimated damage at tens of millions of euros as fresh food spoiled in trucks and warehouses. Reuters reported that the disruption also affected fuel supplies and hospitals in Campania.

Bruno Zuccarelli, head of the local order of physicians and dentists in Naples, said fuel shortages made it harder for doctors to reach hospitals and clinics and for ambulances to respond to emergencies. He called for fuel supplies for ambulances to be guaranteed and for healthcare workers to be able to get to work, according to Reuters.

Meloni’s response to the blockades

Reuters reported that Meloni was due to chair a cabinet meeting on a decree combining aid for truck drivers and farmers, including compensation for high diesel costs. POLITICO subsequently reported that, after a cabinet meeting on Thursday, she pledged financial relief for farmers and fishermen and said she would use a security decree to clear roadblocks. It was not immediately clear whether the aid decree had been approved or put into effect.

The government said it was working to keep essential goods, including food and medicines, moving and was offering police escorts to trucks seeking to pass roadblocks, Reuters reported. POLITICO said Italy’s EU deficit proceedings constrained the government’s room for additional spending on relief.