The long story of the highspeed train in the Susa Valley is a symbol, a paradox and a tragedy.

The boots of history have marched dramatically through the Val di Susa; therefore it’s no surprise that modern ones do the same. It was 218 BC when the powerful army of the Carthago general Hannibal crossed the Alps with 50000 soldiers and 37 elephants. He was heading south and wanted to conquer Roma in the most difficult way. A genius, but he didn’t succeed. Roma – lazy, already corrupt – instead, flourished and conquered the northern part of the peninsula. In 58 BC, Julius Caesar, reversing Hannibal invaded this time from the south, marching victoriously through the Val di Susa to arrive Gallia – France. He acted quickly, and his assessment, “veni, vidi, vici”, has become a catch phrase for swift victory.

Val di Susa – Susa is it’s magnificent Roman capital – is a broad, green and spectacular valley. From the outskirts of Torino it runs northwest 90 km to the French border. High and steep mountains with vast glaciers border The Valley on the left and on the right. Being one of the main passages of continental Europe, centuries have provided The Valley with castles, monumental fortresses, churches, abbeys, and fascinating legends of warriors and bandits. Extensive use of dynamite occurred here in the mid nineteen century when the very modern Frejus gallery was built unifying Italy and France via a 50 km long tunnel across the border.

In WW2 The Valley forged a strong anti-fascist guerrilla movement, remembered today in monuments and songs. The post war economy has seen The Valley prosper with ski resorts, tourism, textile industry, and new markets for wines and cheeses. Many of the 100,000 residents commute to industrial Torino, and many Turinese have second homes here.

The idyllic scene was broken when in 1991, out of the blue, a pantagruelic (a gigantic prince, noted for his ironical buffoonery, in Rabelais’ satire Gargantua and Pantagruel (1534)) state plan for The Valley was announced for a highspeed train (TAV, Treno Alta Velocità) running from Torino to Lyon. A colossal jobs venture between France and Italy; sponsored by the European Union and financed with 20 billion euros. The planned line would devastate The Valley. New tracks, 230 km of new tracks, and a huge 57 km tunnel would perforate The Valley, carrying passengers and goods. The “Grande Opera” was going to take decades, bringing in foreign workers and giving the natives nothing. (Being that the Mafia is the main force for the building business in Italy, residents felt that the Mafia would pollute their clean woods and rivers). Why all this? The plan was said to be of “strategic interest”, to improve business, tourism and trade between northern Italy and France, an indispensable link in the new futuristic railway network meant to link Lisbon to Kiev. In 1991, the plan said half a million people traveled from Turin to Lyon each year. The Promotion Committee forecast that by 2002 passenger numbers would increase fivefold to 7.7 million. The project was also supposed to take away trucks from congested highways, and decrease the pollution in The Valley.

It looked like a good, modern project that would transform a peripheral valley into a sort of thriving center of the new Europe. Well, it was all wrong. Other studies, no less scientific, explained that commercial traffic through the valley was going to decrease, not increase, the environmental hazards were huge, and costs would inevitably rise. Simply the big project made no sense. They were right. Twenty-five years later, the Susa Valley sits on the biggest social, environmental and political disaster, probably in all Europe. The Italian Army has deployed thousands of soldiers to protect useless building sites creating a sort of police state; fences and controls are everywhere, as are secret service agents. Hundreds of people have been incarcerated, indicted for “subversion”, and national politics has been affected in the worst way.

How did this disaster happened? Hard to say. But a mysterious story, always remembered, is said to have started everything. In 1996, while the first opposition to the high speed train was beginning to take shape, the Torino judiciary ordered the imprisonment of three young anarchists and accused them of conspiracy against the TAV. One of them, Edoardo Massari, nicknamed “Baleno”, was found hung in the Torino prison. His girlfriend, a 21 year old Argentinian named Maria “Sole”Soledad Rosas, was under house arrest, when she was found hung in the house. The third man, Silvano Pellissero, a young man of The Valley, whom the prosecutor said there was “gigantic evidence” against, was declared innocent. The tragic episode of the three supposed “ecological terrorists” had a big impact in Torino and The Valley, creating an atmoshpere of mystery and suspicion over the whole high-speed train affair. The Valley people, with dozens of mayors leading the protest, rejected the plan. A march of 70,000 people was attacked by the police. In the years since, the highway to France has been blocked dozens of times. All the political parties, and especially the left, defended the project, claiming that there were no enviromental risks, that the whole business would have been Mafia free, and an economic opportunity for The Valley. The opposition to TAV produced studies about the risk of asbestos and uranium in excavating the gallery, predicting at least twenty years of devastating works, all for a project that fullfilled no needed purpose. The high-speed train would reduce the schedule from Torino to Lyon by only by 20 minutes, having little impact on the transportation of goods. As a matter of fact – as a highly respected Politechnic Univerity study showed, it would have been much more ecologically sound, and cheaper, to use private airplanes instead of trains or trucks.

In twenty years many things have happened in The Valley. People’s opposition to the TAV has grown with a considerable show of militancy including marches, pickets, some sabotage actions, and clashes with the police on dozens of occasions. The Italian State has never conceded anything. Instead police, carabinieri and finally the Army, have been sent to protect the slow and very expensive construction works. On the political side, The Valley, always a leftist bedrock, ceased to be so. Lots of people refused to vote in regional or national elections. Many others supported the Five Star Movement led by the comedian Beppe Grillo (the only character who came to The Valley in solidarity with the residents). The “No TAV” movement also became the symbol of social antagonism nationwide, supported by the radical left everywhere. It’s still amazing to find “No TAV” signs even in deep Sicily. (As a matter of fact, the “No TAV” movement is the only radical event, not only in Italy but in Europe). A very famous lefitst author, Erri De Luca, was indicted for “promoting sabotage”, the charge stemming from a few generic words he made during a public speech. In the name of freedom of speech the author was acquitted at the trial.

The recent national elections may mean change for The Valley. Amazingly the Five Star Movement and Lega parties won a majority and formed the first populist goverment in Europe. However the problem in regards to the Susa Valley is Five Star Movement wants to stop the project, Lega wants to go on, and it’s too early to undestand what will happen.

The long story of the highspeed train in the Susa Valley is a symbol, a paradox and a tragedy. It has challenged the concept of democracy. Can a local community oppose a national will? Can a powerful state enforce its will on a dissident community? What is the role of science, experts, and intellectuals in the decision making? Can a wrong decision be changed by a peaceful movement?

So far nobody has found an answers.

Meanwhile history plays again its symphony. In the cold shadows of the high mountains, in the glittering sun of the glaciers, another army is moving through the Valle di Susa. Thousands of migrants coming from North Africa or Syria, from Yemen or Ethiopia, survivors of the Mediterranean sea wrecks pushing their way north through The Valley on the same route the highspeed train promised to use for a fast and confortable trip to Paris. They have never seen the snow in their young lifes. They camp in the ski resort of Bardonecchia. Some “passeur” shows them the old routes of smugglers and partisans to get to Nevache or Briancon. They buy a windbreaker, a pair of sneakers and they try to cross the border. Italian and French police chase them, and the good people who try to help them, or just to feed them, are inprisoned by the authorities.

When the winter ends the dead bodies of these African and Middle Eastern “soldiers” without elephants will appear again.