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Italy : "Here the mafia has invaded the bathing establishments"the difficult end of the concession monopoly

It is a reform that Europe has been asking Italy to do for more than fifteen years: to put its bathing establishments in competition. Nobody had tackled it before so as not to endanger tourism and the more than 8,000 kilometers of Italian coast. Without forgetting that this reserve has not been managed in a really transparent way. But by the end of 2023 it will be necessary to go through a tender to get a concession for a beach. It’s a real revolution in Italy.

On Rome’s Ostia beach, an excavator digs into the sand and tries to push it back to widen the beach, much to the displeasure of Agostino Biondo, who is an activist in the Mare Libero (“free sea”) association. According to him, the managers of bathing establishments do absolutely what they want: “This establishment has a concession of 4,000 square meters, but during the season it occupies about 12,000 square meters of beach … with sand paid for by public money to fight against erosion.” !” he denounces. And of course he doesn’t pay rent for 12,000 square meters while he occupies them in front of everyone and without anyone saying anything. The worst thing is that in this place, right in the center, we could have a big one free beach for everyone!” Practices against free beaches that can be counted on one hand. And right in the center of Ostia there is a wall almost 4 km long, where bathing establishments follow one another without the possibility of free access to the beach.

The chef prepares lasagne in the Belsito’s kitchen. There is an indoor and outdoor restaurant here, hundreds of sun loungers for rent. Everything is subject to a fee, but the facility’s manager, Edoardo Moscara, believes that the rent he pays to the state is quite sufficient compared to others. “Anyone who pays less than 5,000 euros a year doesn’t have a solid structure,” he explains. Of the 30,000 businesses in Italy, many only pay that. But I can prove to you that I pay 45,000 euros in rent plus taxes, that’s 18,000 and the waste is 34,000.”

Edoardo shows us his beach cabins. He has 200 and rents them out for €2,800 a year, which is more than €500,000. What worries him is not knowing how the government will regulate the now mandatory tenders. “We are two employees, my boyfriend and I, each with two children and my wife. My two sons never went on summer vacation. When they finished high school, they didn’t continue their studies because they wanted to work here. It’s an investment because my family and the government want to take it away from me and put it out to tender. But what we’ve done so far has value. Is it recognized? It doesn’t seem. It’s madness!

Edoardo Moscara is the manager of the "Belsito", in Ostia, near Rome, Italy.  (BRUCE DE GALZAIN / RADIO FRANCE)

Edoardo Moscara is the manager of Belsito in Ostia, near Rome, Italy. (BRUCE DE GALZAIN / RADIO FRANCE)

However, there is a plethora of legislative changes and some MPs are trying to change the criteria to benefit outgoing candidates. New entrepreneurs would then be less fortunate.

Marco Possanzini welcomes us to the municipality of Rome Ostia. The elected ecologist of the civil left is very satisfied with the decision that has just been made: the tenders will be organized by the city of Rome and not by the district of Ostia, which still has 240,000 inhabitants, but from where some make the law. “It absolutely has to be handled in a neutral place, a kind of free zone, he says. Because the mafia is present here, it has haunted the bathing establishments. She’s deeply rooted and very influential through corruption she can’t, she has other means of coercion… and of course you know what I’m referring to!” In Ostia, the Mafia was convicted of drug trafficking and especially human trafficking.