Pd’s latest assignment: also allocate space

The sheriff of Campania, Vincenzo De Luca, disguises himself as a Martian and flies into space to search for a treasure worth 200 million euros. The Campania region joins Cira, the first Italian aerospace research center in the south, based in Capua, in the province of Caserta. The move brings the Democratic governor to a table laden with a €113m pie earmarked for aviation and space research. In addition, of course, the financing (around 70 million euros) has been transferred to Cira di Capua thanks to Pnrr. A Banquet of Money and Enterprise You Don’t Want to Miss Pd. However, a step back is required to understand how De Luca and Cira’s paths intersected. The tape has to be rewound to 1984, the year Cira was created. Caserta Research Corporation is a publicly owned company established to carry out research activities in aviation and space disciplines. At the time of birth, the Campania region decided to sell its shares to the ASI consortium (Industrial Development Area) of Caserta. And so in the last 38 years, the Asi consortium in Caserta, together with Cnr and Asi (the Italian space agency), has held Cira stakes. This past December 12th comes this development. With a unilateral ruling, President De Luca regains the stakes as a body in the Campania region. In the law – which the newspaper can publish – the governor of the Democratic Party called on the Campania regional offices to activate all measures to remove the Orontes Confederation of Caserta from the administration of Serra and to return the Campania region. A complete Christmas attack, which was not examined by the regional council. A move that would displace everyone, and yet would allow Di Luca and his supporters to have a say in the running of the Space Research Corporation. The first effect is the appointment of Laura Caputo to the board of directors of Cira: she is from Salerno and very loyal to the sheriff. But De Luca’s expansion plan doesn’t end with a chair at the board. A river of public money will drown this gem in the coming years. A project called «Nuovo Prora» (National Space Research Programme) is being implemented in the heart of Serra, for which the Ministry of University and Scientific Research has allocated 113 million euros. It is a project created to promote the scientific, technological and economic development of the aviation sector. Money and contracts: This is the combination that can be tempting. When it comes to contracts with Cira, you always have to be careful. Last April, the research body ended up at the center of an investigation conducted by the Department for Disarmament Affairs in Naples: the anti-mafia judges confirmed (with dozens of arrests) the infiltration of the Casalesi clan with the companies linked to the contracts carried out by the research. A dark story where the Camorra pollutes even sectors of excellence such as space research. But Di Luca’s interests in Caserta don’t stop at Serra. An amendment appeared in the most recent budget approved by the Campania region that is causing much debate: the law prohibits the ASI federation in Caserta from allocating plots to dozens of industrial settlements in the former Emporico region. There is already talk of speculation and litigation.