'Laid-off Island' gets fresh hope
Ex-minister visits, puts protesters through to Napolitano
06 September, 17:23
(ANSA) - Sassari, September 6 - Laid-off Sardinian chemicals workers protesting on the former prison island of Asinara got fresh hope Monday when an ex-minister visited them and put them through to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
Beppe Pisanu, a top member of Premier Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PdL) party and interior minister from 2000 to 2006, had lunch and spent several hours with the occupants of 'Laid-Off Island', as the protesters are known in their own Web-based Survivor-type TV show.
The PdL heavyweight, who is currently head of the parliamentary anti-Mafia commission, toured the island and viewed the conditions the workers have been living in for 193 days.
Pisanu was reportedly so impressed by their initiative that he told them he would speak to Berlusconi personally.
He also phoned Napolitano and handed the phone to the leader of the protest, Pietro Marongiu.
"Pisanu passed me the president, who already in the past had voiced his support for us," Marongiu said.
"I'm still "excited by the "warm and encouraging conversation".
"Napolitano told me he is with us, always following us. It makes the months of sacrifices and suffering worthwhile".
Pisanu also told the workers that, in order for their dispute to be settled, a new industry minister needed to be appointed.
Berlusconi has held the post ad interim for four months but said last week a replacement will be named this week for Claudio Scjaola who resigned over a shady real-estate deal in May. On their Facebook page, the protesters said: "It was positive to be able to discuss our dispute with an authoritative member of the government".
They reiterated their hope that the government can find a buyer for the insolvent Sardinian chemicals firm Vinyls, part of the giant ENI fuels group.
The case appeared to be heading for a solution this summer but a Qatari multinational, Ramco, at the last minute pulled out of a deal to take over the plant.
Laid-Off Island has drawn some 100,000 supporters to its Facebook page and has a link (www.isoladeicassintegrati.com) on the Web page of Sardinia's largest newspaper, La Nuova Sardegna, with a 'survivors' journal'.
Since mid-January the workers have been beaming images of themselves living in Asinara's closed-down maximum security jail, once home to terrorists and mafiosi.
The protest has been backed by a number of Italian political parties including the largest opposition group, the Democratic Party, which has called on the centre-right government to put pressure on ENI to find another bidder.
