Emmanuel Macron, returning to the Roya Valley 15 months after deadly floods, praised the “colossal” work already accomplished on Monday, promising, in the face of persistent difficulties, that 2022 will mark “the full completion of the work.” About 200 residents also waited for the head of state for hours, in the cold.
After a visit to the massive construction site of the departmental road that the river had transformed into dotted lines, the President of the Republic arrived in Tende, at the heart of one of the three alpine valleys affected in the Menton hinterland. The floods had caused ten deaths and eight disappearances on the French side.
The mayor, Jean-Pierre Vassalo, greeted him with tears in his voice: “There was an astonishing, extraordinary will. I, the next day, thought we were doomed, frankly doomed,” thinking it would take “at least five to six years for us to recover.”
However, the elected official mentioned the railway, a “lifeline” to the coast, which needs to be “more efficient,” and the valley’s hospitals, which employ 500 people and “need to be strengthened.” Not to mention the hamlet of Casterino, still cut off from the world.
Emmanuel Macron, who had already visited the valley a few days after the disaster and promised to return, was attentive, speaking little. “The important thing is to alert us to the areas where we must continue to be vigilant,” he assured. He wanted to “acknowledge the colossal work” done over the past 15 months in the face of “immense damage,” the most severe in mainland France since the Second World War, assuring that “the year 2022 will see the complete end of the work.”
However, this timeline will be challenging to meet for the Tende tunnel, which usually connects Tende to Limone on the Italian side, and is expected to reopen at the earliest in 2023 according to authorities.
“It will take more than 300 days to drill through,” confirmed the mayor of Tende. “We need a real agreement, a Franco-Italian cooperation, so that there are no more blockages,” insisted Sébastian Olharan, mayor (LR) of Breil-sur-Roya.
“This is a European issue; we have the presidency (of the European Union, Editor’s note) and we can reach an agreement immediately,” replied Emmanuel Macron.
