Milan’s EXPO success revives common spirit

Milan will host the 2015 EXPO after winning
the final vote in Paris against the Turkish city
of Smirne. The
news was received with great satisfaction all over Italy. It comes at the right time
to revive optimism in the country after the Naples trash crisis and the bad economic
situation had led to “a winter of discontent”.

Undoubtedly, the figure most closely involved in preparing
Milan’s triumph
was its mayor Letizia Moratti. After it was announced that the city had beaten
Smirne by 86 to 64 votes, Moratti said that she is “pleased for Milan but also pleased
for the rest of the world as this will be a universal exposition for the world
as a whole.”

The projects for the great occasion are very
ambitious. Milan
is planning to set landmarks both in terms of culture and technology. As the
exposition’s most striking innovation the organizers plan to erect a tower of 200 metres in the middle
of the international pavilions. The whole exposition area will cover 110 hectares, half of
it on natural green space. It is expected that the event will attract around 29
million visitors and generate 44 billion Euros for businesses in Milan.

The economic factor is certainly significant whenever
an event as huge as the Olympics, the World Cup or indeed as the EXPO is
awarded. But in this case, Milan’s
victory also has an intangible value which cannot be measured in monetary
terms. This is because of two factors characterizing the current situation of Italy.

Firstly, the exposition will give the country a forum
to present itself in the eyes of the world after making negative headlines in
recent times, be it through the ongoing trash crisis in Naples, the political deadlock or the lack of
economic growth of the last couple of years. Some foreigners may forget that Italy (and in particular the region around Milan) is in many sectors
at the cutting edge of technological and business innovation. The EXPO will
provide the opportunity to remind the world of this little-noticed reality.

Secondly, the exposition is a chance to mend relations
between Milan, the commercial, and Rome, the political
capital. In recent years, this relationship has undergone some tensions as  northern citizens often complain about the
lack of accountability with which resources produced in Lombardy
and its neighbouring regions are used by national politicians. The way in which
the EXPO victory was achieved displayed a common spirit by northern and
national figures in both business and politics and this is a good sign for the
future.

However, despite the overall joy, the good news also
caused some political argument. This was triggered off by the uncertainty over
the future of Milan’s
airport Malpensa which is closely linked to the crisis of flagship airline
Alitalia. Now that the EXPO is going to Milan,
some politicians from the Lega Nord have said that it would be irresponsible to
let Malpensa be downgraded.

More political controversy was inevitable after some
journalists provocatively asked opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi whether Milan’s success was
exclusively due to the efforts of outgoing prime minister Romano Prodi.
Unsurprisingly, Berlusconi rejected any such notion emphasizing that it was not
Prodi’s merit. The episode caused some more squabble from all sides of the
political spectrum but at the end of the day everyone realizes that Milan won
due to a common effort and that the event should be not be spoiled by
party-politics.