Unions and opposition parties in the Marche have voiced deep dismay and strong concern over the Ricostruzione investigation, which has led to eight people being remanded in custody, 51 people under investigation and seizures worth more than €57 million. They are calling on regional president Francesco Acquaroli to give an immediate account in the regional council.
Fillea Cgil and Cgil Marche said the anti-mafia operation, which started in Ancona and the Marche region and has widened to many Italian provinces and regions, is exposing dangerous criminal and mafia infiltration in public contracts, cascading subcontracting and reconstruction after the 2016 earthquake. They said large investment funds can again become fertile ground for organised crime, and that the unions have long warned of risks now brought to light by judicial police and prosecutors.
The two organisations said prevention is necessary. Union agreements and legality protocols, from the congruity Durc to the construction-site badge, are important, they said, but cannot suffice unless spending and financial flows are made traceable. They called for vigilance, controls and a stronger culture of legality to protect sound firms and stop the consequences of irregularities falling on workers, putting their safety and future at risk. They also criticised the decriminalisation of abuse of office, saying it does not help preventive action against the mafias and in favour of legality.
In a joint document, the assembly groups of the Democratic Party, the Five Star Movement, Alleanza Verdi Sinistra, Progetto Marche and Lista Ricci said news of the Ancona Guardia di Finanza operation that morning caused profound dismay and very strong concern. They recalled the scale of the inquiry and the allegations of aggravated fraud, corruption and organised-crime infiltration. They expressed full confidence in the judiciary and the Guardia di Finanza, said every criminal responsibility must be established in the proper forums, and said the presumption of innocence applies to all those under investigation. They added that the seriousness of the alleged facts and the political issues that have emerged require an immediate, transparent institutional response.
The document refers to Fabio Pistarelli, a lawyer who served as Acquaroli’s chief of staff and is a reference figure for the centre-right in Macerata and the region. The minority groups asked whether the regional government and the majority parties knew of the dynamics or problems now emerging from the investigation. Because the Marche region itself is among the contracting authorities, they said the government must state clearly which controls were carried out, which gaps in verification allowed this to happen, and how it intends to remedy them.
They also criticised a reconstruction model focused on inaugurations while questions of legality and site safety remain open. They said reconstruction is neither an electoral catwalk nor a banquet for political or business appetites, and warned that when crime or speculation enters a site it does so to enrich itself. Illicit profit, they said, can mean reduced pay, undeclared work and trampled protections, or scrap materials, cut-price work and works booked but never carried out. In earthquake-hit territory, they added, the issue also concerns the safety of buildings where families are expected to live again. The document cites recent disputes over unpaid wages in Tolentino and Colmurano, and says legality must run through the whole chain, including subcontracting, and cannot stop at the formal regularity of a contract.
The groups asked for an extraordinary regional council to be called urgently, after the investigators’ press conference, so that president Acquaroli can report immediately and with maximum transparency on what happened, on protective measures already taken, and on the role of key figures in his political majority.
Democratic Party regional councillor Maurizio Mangialardi also demanded full clarity. He said the news raises deep concern because of the seriousness of the investigative hypotheses, the size of the inquiry and the involvement of people who held leading roles in regional institutions. He thanked the judiciary and police for their work in defence of legality and the public interest, while restating the constitutional presumption of innocence for everyone involved, including where there are arrests, precautionary measures and particularly serious alleged offences. He said that does not remove the need for political and institutional clarity, especially because the Marche region is among the contracting authorities covered by the inquiry.
Mangialardi wants Acquaroli to report at the extraordinary council already set for Wednesday 28 October in Muccia, called to mark ten years since the 2016 shocks and to take stock of reconstruction. He said the president should explain which controls were carried out, which problems emerged and what initiatives the government intends to take to protect the public interest. He said this is not about anticipating judgments or assigning responsibilities that only the judiciary can establish, but about the assembly fully exercising its role of oversight and guarantee. Reconstruction, he said, is a commitment made to the earthquake-hit communities, and protecting its credibility, transparency and legality is a duty of the institutions before it is a political responsibility.
Gabriele Marcozzi, regional secretary of Rifondazione comunista-Sinistra europea, took a harder line, saying the events tear the veil from the much-trumpeted post-earthquake reconstruction in the Marche. If confirmed, he said, the system of offences points to a perverse mechanism in which organised crime risks being the main beneficiary. He also pointed to the involvement of local and regional political figures, and to weak controls on working hours, protections and guarantees on building sites. Among the examples he cited were workers who climbed a crane in Tolentino to demand unpaid wages, and technical and administrative staff in crater municipalities who risk losing their jobs without stabilisation.
Marcozzi said the problem is not only the individual cases, serious as they are, but the overall state of reconstruction, which risks becoming a social bomb as well as a legal one. He blamed the lack of an overall vision as the emergency phase ends. He said the Acquaroli government had delegated decisions to reconstruction commissioner Guido Castelli and given up a steering role in territorial development policy. He called for a full review of reconstruction involving all communities, productive sectors, unions and social forces, including the depopulation of inland areas.