Empty Shelves, No Jet Fuel, Rotting Kiwis: Truck Blockade in Italy Forces Meloni Into Emergency Cabinet

Southern Italy is running out of patience – and out of supplies. On Wednesday, protesting hauliers closed the junction between the A1 motorway and the A30 Caserta–Salerno near Caserta, one of the busiest freight crossroads in the country, ANSA reported. Queues stretched for kilometres.

The effects spread fast. The airports of Crotone and Reggio Calabria ran out of fuel. The buffalo mozzarella consortium sounded the alarm over milk that cannot be collected, and farmers estimate around €30 million of damage to kiwi crops in just five days. In the Caserta area, tyres were slashed on trucks whose drivers refused to join the protest.

“Il rispetto delle regole, la libertà di circolazione e la tutela delle attività economiche devono restare priorità imprescindibili.”

“Respect for the rules, freedom of movement and the protection of economic activity must remain essential priorities.”

— Italian prime minister’s office (Palazzo Chigi), quoted by ANSA

Rome hits back

The government chose a hard line. According to ANSA, police have identified 1,339 people, reported 71 to prosecutors and handed out 242 fines, and around 500 trucks were escorted through Campania under police protection. The Interior Ministry said it would guarantee deliveries of essential goods.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni gathered ministers at Palazzo Chigi on Wednesday and called a cabinet meeting for Thursday 22 October to approve a decree with support for road haulage and agriculture. Her office stressed that rules, free movement and the economy come first.

In Sicily and Calabria, the haulier groups Aias and Fedralog have already suspended their protests, and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini has called the sector to a meeting on 27 October. Deputy minister Edoardo Rixi promised that funds owed to the hauliers would be paid “from today”. But in Naples and Bari, mayors Gaetano Manfredi and Vito Leccese described their cities as “paralysed and buried in rubbish”.