Two members of the Green and Left Alliance, Angelo Bonelli, leader of the Greens, and Filiberto Zaratti, have requested, through an amendment to article 3 of the Infrastructure decree, to suspend Gualtieri’s commissioner powers with the closure of the Jubilee year. This means that these powers cannot be exercised for projects that will not be completed by the Jubilee 2025.
The argument is simple: Rome’s Mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, can act as the extraordinary commissioner for the Jubilee only for projects that will be completed and used by the end of the Holy Year, set for January 6, 2026, but not for projects that will be finished later.
The problem for the mayor is that the request comes from his allies. Members of the Green and Left Alliance, Angelo Bonelli, leader of the Greens, and Filiberto Zaratti, have asked, through an amendment to article 3 of the Infrastructure decree, to suspend Gualtieri’s commissioner powers with the closure of the Jubilee year. This means that these powers cannot be used for unfinished projects.
“The superpowers were granted for interventions related to the celebrations of the Catholic event, after which, in our opinion, the extraordinary phase allowing the Capital’s Mayor to operate with special procedures must end,” is the opinion of Bonelli and Zaratti.
For the two Green and Left Alliance representatives, “the exceptionality of a phase cannot be used to proceed with the implementation of projects that have a significant impact on the territory, such as the Fiumicino cruise port or the incinerator at the foot of the Castelli Romani, treated as if they were emergency works, outside standard procedures. For us, this practice must end with the closure of the Jubilee.”
Bonelli and Zaratti’s objectives are explicit: prevent Mayor Gualtieri from completing the Santa Palomba waste-to-energy plant and the Fiumicino cruise port projects. While the incinerator’s construction timeline has always been clear, with inauguration expected by late 2026/early 2027, the port project, included in the latest decree on works planned for the Holy Year in the ‘Hospitality for pilgrims and visitors’ sector, is significantly delayed and still in the procedural phase. And for the Jubilee, nothing will likely be completed.
In the project sheets attached to the decree, it is stated regarding the Fiumicino port project:
During the Jubilee 2025, the Port and its internationally standard facilities (e.g., public spaces, the hotel, the terminal) can be made available to the Commissioner’s Office and the Working Group for events or other initiatives. Moreover, cruise ships have often been used as ‘floating cities’, useful when additional accommodation is needed. This way, the port will represent a new and extraordinary entrance, via the maritime route: the third Gate to Rome, its hinterland, and the whole of Lazio.
