{"id":1065,"date":"2025-11-10T13:09:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T13:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.youthmed.net\/?p=1065"},"modified":"2026-04-01T13:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:27:14","slug":"governance-finance-and-law-the-three-great-pillars-of-the-srait-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.youthmed.net\/en\/governance-finance-and-law-the-three-great-pillars-of-the-srait-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"GOVERNANCE, FINANCE AND LAW: THE THREE GREAT PILLARS OF THE SRAIT BRIDGE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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GOVERNANCE, FINANCE AND LAW: THE THREE GREAT PILLARS OF THE SRAIT BRIDGE<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Infrastructure between myth and reality<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Elena Camille\u2019s interview with Sofia Rudi Kent<\/b><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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E: Hi Sofia, would you like to introduce yourself and what you do? How are you, first of all?<\/b><\/p>\n

S: I\u2019m good, thank you. My name is Sofia Rudi Kent and I am an Irish Calabrian researcher<\/b> based in London. I have just finished a master\u2019s<\/b> in the Centre for Research Architecture<\/b>, which is based in Goldsmiths, University of London<\/b>.<\/p>\n

E: Could you tell us about the centre and how you brought forward your research?<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Sure, The Centre is grounded in practice-led research<\/b> that investigates the urgent political conditions<\/b> of our time, using spatial practices<\/b> to interrogate politics, media, ecology, and human rights<\/b>. The program encourages us to combine fieldwork<\/b>, critical reflection, and theoretical investigation, with the goal of developing methods that can intervene in real-world issues<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Another thing which would be important to mention about the Centre for Research Architecture<\/b> is that it\u2019s also where Forensic Architecture<\/b> was founded, a working group whose research has brought global attention to state violence<\/b>, from investigating \u201cdrift-backs\u201d<\/b> in the Mediterranean<\/b> and Aegean seas, to documenting how the events in Gaza<\/b> over the last two years constitute genocide<\/b> through steadfast research and visual evidence<\/b>. Their work has entered courtrooms as evidence and gallery spaces as visual investigations.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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THE PARADOX OF INFRASTRUCTURES IN SOUTH ITALY<\/p>\n

E: Maybe diving into your research topic could give us some more specific insight on how you put all this into action.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Yes, so for example, for the site-specific work of the Ponte sullo Stretto<\/b> I started thinking about how power<\/b> gets expressed within politics, and I started to see a little bit of a connection with how myth<\/b> could be an organising tool<\/b>, which ended up being, for me, very helpful, so I guess that\u2019s kind of a moment where the centre pushes for experimentation<\/b> rather than just tradition.<\/p>\n

E: I am personally very curious, how and why did you decide to go into the case of the Ponte di Messina? Does it have a name in English?<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Well, there\u2019s not really a name, I guess it\u2019s \u201cthe bridge\u201d<\/b>. Anyway, in the past I had done a lot of work researching different kind of colonial structures<\/b> in Ireland, when I was still based in Ireland, but when I started this course, I knew that I wanted it to be focused on the south of Italy<\/b> because I thought it would be a great opportunity to be able to do field work<\/b>, as it\u2019s a place accessible to me, but also because there were certain aspects about the south of Italy that I only knew about through familial knowledge<\/b> and from stories but that I didn\u2019t feel like I had a deep enough understanding of, why things were the way they were.<\/p>\n

Anybody who drives around Calabria<\/b> or, I feel predominantly in the south sees that it is surrounded by abandoned houses<\/b>, half built roads<\/b>, and incomplete infrastructure<\/b>, it\u2019s scattered across a very gorgeous landscape, destroying the territory<\/b> and the terrain and seeing this alongside the ongoing regional disparity<\/b> in essential infrastructure raised questions for me about how these visible ruins<\/b> relate to deeper social and political histories<\/b>, so I had to look further into this sort of phenomena.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started making a database of unfinished infrastructure<\/b> in Calabria, and tried to document why they became abandoned, how much money was spent, at what point of the construction phase they were, just to understand what was actually happening. \u201c<\/p>\n

E: I think we can definitely describe it as a phenomena, it\u2019s very diffused, and very common to me, I am from the south of Italy, from Lecce, and after a while you tend to somehow see past it because it\u2019s so common that it becomes a natural unnatural element in the environment, until you actually focus on it and see it for what it really is, which is \u201ca punch in the eye\u201d is the expression here.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: yeah, it translates well, no, it\u2019s true, I think it\u2019s so bizarre that it feels a little bit ridiculous to even try to look into, because there\u2019s all of this unfinished stuff<\/b> everywhere, so I started making a database of unfinished infrastructure<\/b> in Calabria, and tried to document why they get abandoned, how much money was spent, at what point of the construction phase they were, just to understand what was actually happening.<\/p>\n

So because of this idea of, the south being a \u2018problem\u2019<\/b>, and that, you know, this kind of myth<\/b> of southerners being incapable of an organised society in the same way as the north, there were all these huge funding packages<\/b> getting sent to the south, like the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno<\/b>, then there was the pacchetto Colombo<\/b> in the 70s, and all of these funding packages were really ineffective, and actually left mass graveyards of cement<\/b>, and Eco-mostros<\/b>, so what I was to starting to tie in was that actually this kind of myth of the south was enabling the state to use infrastructure as a kind of \u201cmedicine\u201d<\/b> for all issues of the south.<\/p>\n

If we just send them loads of money and build lots of large-scale infrastructures<\/b>, the problems are solved. That obviously didn\u2019t work and didn\u2019t happen, but that same kind of mentality<\/b> is still continued now, and so when we look at the Ponte<\/b>, it has the same rhetoric<\/b> behind it, that the state says, \u201coh, well, if we give them the bridge, then the south will be solved, or the issues in Calabria and Sicily will be resolved\u201d, when actually it\u2019s a lot deeper than that, and it takes a lot of blame away from the reasons why the south is seen as this problem : not because of historical exploitation<\/b> of the south or damaging national policy<\/b>, but supposedly because of the character of its people. These projects, rather than addressing inequality<\/b>, often reinforced stereotypes<\/b> of southern inefficiency while enabling private profiteering<\/b>.<\/p>\n

E: In my opinion it\u2019s also due to a lot of long-term policies that have been made just to enforce more of a division<\/b><\/p>\n

S: yes, and enforce more power dynamics<\/b>, making local governments<\/b> actually have less agency. I feel like infrastructure has played a huge role in that, because, for example, with the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno<\/b>, the promise of capital investment<\/b> in the South through infrastructure projects can be seen as a myth given that the bulk of capital for the these projects was redirected back to the North<\/b>, so, it\u2019s hard to look at anything in the south without trying to understand the subaltern relationship<\/b> between the north and south as a necessary part of the story, I suppose. Through the data I\u2019ve collected thus far I can state that 70% of all unfinished infrastructure<\/b> in Italy is in southern regions, and the only region where that number continues to grow every year is Sicily<\/b>.<\/p>\n

THE BRIDGE AS A SYMBOL BETWEEN MYTH AND REALITY<\/p>\n

E: When did they first start talking about the possibility of there ever being a bridge, do you know?<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Well, yeah, so, in 1860, during Risorgimento<\/b> time there were ideas of the bridge as a unifying force<\/b>, but also there are stories the Roman Empire<\/b> wanted to build the bridge, they wanted to transport goods from Sicily to the mainland, and so they tried to build a bridge. Honestly, it goes back so far, and then Mussolini<\/b> wanted to build the bridge. I feel like every, kind of, right-wing guy in Italian history wanted to build the bridge, you know?<\/p>\n

E: I think it\u2019s a clear pattern.<\/b> S: Yeah. It\u2019s true. It\u2019s always an expression of power<\/b> with this bridge, because it\u2019s more this symbol of nationalistic unity<\/b> than it is a bridge. The main moment where the construction ideas grew was, from the 1950s onwards. It was created as a legal entity<\/b> in the 1970s. So, from then on, the Italian state had to somewhat, prioritise it, because the legal body<\/b> of it had been created.<\/p>\n

E: Okay, so, what did you find out through your research?<\/b><\/p>\n

S: It would be nice to go back to the way that I was trying to organise it, so through the idea of myth building<\/b>. I was looking a lot at 20th century myth theory<\/b>, and what comes around in most of these as a structure of how a myth can be created is that: there\u2019s a problem area<\/b>, there\u2019s a problem space, and there\u2019s a governor, a king, a power source<\/b>, and they begin to select a scapegoat<\/b>, this is the \u2018othering\u2019 process<\/b> \u2013 which is usually, someone who\u2019s poorer, someone who looks different, someone who acts different, and this can be a very long process.<\/p>\n

Then, once you\u2019ve got your scapegoats, what it allows for is the power source to inflict violence<\/b> on the scapegoats, because it will be seen as if once violence is inflicted on the scapegoats, a lot of the issues are resolved. When the state does something in this manner, let\u2019s say for example, the expropriations<\/b> for the bridge, or it destroys lands to build a dam<\/b> that they never finish, that\u2019s an example of violence that\u2019s getting enacted on the scapegoats, they say \u201cwell, once that is done, then all the issues of the south will be resolved\u201d.<\/p>\n

I started looking at Colapesce<\/b>, a very important Messinese myth<\/b>. (I think there\u2019s also a version from Napoli and other areas). Colapesce<\/b> is the myth of a half man, half fish, and the fact that the island of Sicily is standing on three pillars<\/b> but one of the pillars is crumbling, and Colapesce replaces one of the pillars to keep the island floating, and so, I was trying to understand, how do we keep a myth, or a mythical infrastructure<\/b>, like the Ponte, alive? Because it doesn\u2019t exist physically, but it exists in public consciousness<\/b> so vividly, and even without existing, it\u2019s already impacted the communities and the territory of the Stretto<\/b>. In the same way that a myth doesn\u2019t have a physical form, but it has real world effects.<\/p>\n

I asked myself: what is the scaffolding<\/b> that\u2019s keeping up the myth of the bridge? I tried using the same three pillars as Colapesce, and so, I looked at governance<\/b>, or policy<\/b>, I looked at finance<\/b>, and I looked at law<\/b>, and, actually, how those three pillars have been allowing this myth of the bridge to stay alive, since at least the 1950s, if not longer.<\/p>\n

E: Governance, finance, and law, so who is Colapesce in this case?<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Well, it\u2019s hard, because Colapesce in the myth is the scapegoat<\/b>, he is the one now stuck under the Stretto, forever, so, I guess, I don\u2019t have a character for Colapesce, to be honest.<\/p>\n

E: Could he be identified in the local communities maybe?<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Probably yes, because they\u2019re doing so much work to support their home, the island, and the whole Stretto territory, actually on that note I think that it\u2019s important to mention the \u201cNo-Ponte\u201d movement<\/b>, who were so helpful for my research. I went twice in the summer, and they had a headquarters in Torre faro<\/b>, which is near land that would get expropriated<\/b> if the bridge gets built, and so they took over this building, and they turned it into the No-Ponte headquarters and called it Casa Cariddi<\/b> (Scilla and Cariddi<\/b> is another very popular myth from Sicily), they had it for three months, they were organising workshops<\/b>, talks and informational discussions about the engineering<\/b> of the bridge. I think that it should be widely known that they have been protesting against it this since the Berlusconi-Ponte<\/b> idea.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s nearly 20 years and they\u2019ve put on hundreds of different protests<\/b> and events and festivals about educating people on the values and reasons behind the No bridge movement<\/b>. This said, it\u2019s clear how one of the pillars, the law<\/b>, is systematically delegitimising the resistance<\/b> through legal avenues brought forward by the state, so instead of protecting the people, it\u2019s protecting large-scale infrastructure<\/b> and business. For example, there is the decreto di sicurezza<\/b>..<\/p>\n

HOW ARE THE CITIZENS REACTING?<\/p>\n

E: Yes, it\u2019s also a national issue and a big topic at the moment, yet a lot of people are actually completely ignorant in regards to the content of the decreto di sicurezza and what this puts at stake.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: There are a few of the key points within the decree that I guess really focused on intensifying the criminalisation of dissent<\/b> towards infrastructure. And the fact that it kind of was coinciding just when the bridge project was getting more accelerated<\/b>. It felt like this kind of very intense kind of conjuncture<\/b>.<\/p>\n

E: Perfect timing, right?<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Perfect timing, exactly. There\u2019s a lot about the criminalisation of passive protest<\/b> as well. They\u2019ve very much highlighted that anybody participating in a protest or a revolt, which includes passive resistance<\/b>, can face imprisonment<\/b> between one to five years. Which also means that within the territory of the speculative infrastructure<\/b> and on construction sites, police will have extra jurisdiction<\/b> and will be allowed to express further kind of power in these areas, because the areas of the construction sites<\/b> are where people are usually protesting the most.<\/p>\n

E: And so, the people who are directly impacted by the making of this sort of band-aid, infrastructure should no longer be much of a problem .<\/b><\/p>\n

S:Yes, yeah, exactly.<\/p>\n

E:So if we go back to the Ponte, what has it meant for the local community so far and what could it mean in practical and legal terms if it were to be built?<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Legally, a good example could be the 102 citizens<\/b> from the surrounding cities of the Straits that brought the Stretto di Messina S.P.A<\/b> to court in a class action lawsuit<\/b>, which is a huge thing to have done. And again, their punishment was far bigger than any other in a similar scenario, if you get me. They were given a 300,000 euro fine<\/b> that they have to pay to Stretto di Messina spa, a state run company<\/b>.<\/p>\n

And also what I thought was so insane about this case was that the citizens had asked to remain anonymous<\/b> and the court denied that and released the names. And so again, you\u2019re actually putting these people in a very direct line of possible harm<\/b>.<\/p>\n

E: And so- Punishment.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Yes.<\/p>\n

E: And I guess that by contemporarily delegitimising the use of legal defence, you\u2019re making people feel like they can\u2019t use legal avenues. Like normal citizens don\u2019t feel like they can use legal avenues anymore.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: It\u2019s kind of a performative display of authority<\/b>, reducing the law to a tool<\/b> that\u2019s only accessible by the perpetrator, or by the state or by the company. And it\u2019s not a tool that the normal person can use.<\/p>\n

E: And secondly discrediting the legal aids themselves. The minister of international affairs recently said that international law is important. But up to a certain point.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: The Supreme Court<\/b> also was against the decreto di sicurezza<\/b>. So the Supreme Court released an amazing play-by-play of the entire decreto and clearly stated in each point how things were unconstitutional<\/b>, that certain elements should be considered unlawful<\/b>. And that\u2019s the actual house of law in Italy saying that. But the government maybe amends certain things, but doesn\u2019t actually take it into full consideration.<\/p>\n

To move on to the next pillar, finances<\/b>, what I wanted to try to explain was that the bridge is super operational<\/b> and super productive<\/b> actually as a non-existent bridge<\/b>. So in this moment of suspension<\/b> or speculation<\/b>, the bridge can be super productive because it is actually kind of generating finance and generating speculative finance<\/b> in this moment that it doesn\u2019t yet exist. And then as soon as it gets constructed, this kind of beautiful moment for the investors and the state, disappears.<\/p>\n

And so I guess I wanted to also show that it\u2019s productive for them to have this very extended moment of suspension<\/b>: will we build it, will we not? You know, there\u2019s actually an aspect of that that is quite productive for the private companies<\/b> and the state. The two parties that are in control of the bridge haven\u2019t really changed in the last 22 years. So that\u2019s since, just about Berlusconi<\/b> time.<\/p>\n

But the CEO<\/b> Of the Stretto di Messina Spa<\/b> remains Pietro Cucci<\/b>. The company that was entrusted to construct the bridge and the works around it has remained Eurolink Consortium<\/b>, which is WeBuild<\/b> as well. So there\u2019s the kind of private party and then there\u2019s the public government owned group. And so those two groups actually haven\u2019t changed at all. They\u2019ve changed names to hide certain things. But the actual structure<\/b> of the groups and the companies has not.<\/p>\n

E: Do they keep claiming funds? How does it make them profit?<\/b><\/p>\n

S:One key aspect is what happens when the bridge project gets terminated<\/b>, and it\u2019s already been cancelled twice, in 2006 and 2013. Each time, the financial repercussions<\/b> are immense. The private consortium and the state must agree in advance on compensation clauses<\/b>, essentially deciding who owes whom if the bridge isn\u2019t built. During the last termination, the state paid around \u20ac700 million in damages<\/b> to the Eurolink Consortium<\/b>, when the bridge was valued at \u20ac3 billion.<\/p>\n

Now, with the project valued at \u20ac13 billion<\/b>, the stakes are far higher. Someone is clearly benefitting from delay: in August this year, the government finalised new contracts with Eurolink that include a termination clause<\/b> imposing a penalty of over \u20ac1 million per day of delay<\/b>. Every day the bridge isn\u2019t built, the state owes the private company that sum.<\/p>\n

This exposes the state to enormous financial risk<\/b> and effectively guarantees that capital<\/b> continues to flow to contractors<\/b>, regardless of whether construction ever happens. It\u2019s a mechanism for diverting public money<\/b> into private hands, a continuous transfer of state funds<\/b> into private investment. This pattern has defined the relationship between the state and the Strait of Messina company since its creation in 1971.<\/p>\n

Some researchers have tried to calculate how much money has already been spent on the bridge, but it\u2019s difficult to determine.<\/p>\n

E: Well, with a 700 million euro fine for a non-existing bridge I can kind of already side with the no ponte movement.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Exactly, exactly.<\/p>\n

E: I mean. If it was granted to Sicily, I\u2019m quite sure there would have been lots of other areas in which to invest.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Absolutely. There\u2019s an investigation done in 2023 by Italian journalists Milena Gabanelli<\/b> and Massimo Sideri<\/b>. And I think they came to a figure of about 1.2 billion<\/b> that has already been spent on the bridge since the 1980s. That\u2019s an insane amount of money that in the two regions of Sicily<\/b> and Calabria<\/b> could really necessarily be spent on other things. I think that the communities that live there should be the ones to decide.<\/p>\n

Every year about 12 million people<\/b> cross the Strait of Messina<\/b>, either tourists or people going to and from university and work and the link, the ferry infrastructure<\/b> that currently exists and the boats that currently exist are functional and they\u2019re historically quite important.<\/p>\n

But the members of the No-ponte movement<\/b> and the local community, have been asking for improvements of the ferries. So asking for greener ferries<\/b>, less polluting, faster ferries or more of them, so you\u2019re not waiting as long, especially in the summer months. And actually under the Draghi government<\/b> in 2021, about 57 million euro of EU funds<\/b> had been allocated for the purchase of non-polluting green, faster ferries<\/b> over the Strait of Messina. And this was an amazing thing.<\/p>\n

And then when the government changed, these funds were actually diverted<\/b> under Matteo Salvini<\/b>. These funds were actually diverted to finance the bridge<\/b>. So what the bridge has done is put the people of the Straits into a limbo<\/b>, because the things that they know could easily be done and effective, like getting greener ferries that would cost far less, that would be far quicker to do. And that would actually actively change people\u2019s experience of crossing the Strait. I was trying to understand that while this bridge isn\u2019t physical, that it was still actively doing things<\/b>, so it was still actively reallocating money<\/b>, spending money.<\/p>\n

E: What about social dynamics? I was talking to a friend of mine and she was telling me about the \u201cpilone\u201d that they have in Messina and how young generations now gather there to make sense and make use of one of the Ecomostros left behind during the whole process.<\/b><\/p>\n

S:Yes, the pilone<\/b> is right by the beach, and it\u2019s enormous. What\u2019s fascinating is that there are two of them \u2014 one on the Calabrian side and one in Sicily \u2014 facing each other across the Strait. They were built to carry electricity to Sicily and each stands at around 200 metres high. The proposed bridge<\/b>, though, would be roughly 400 metres, double the height of these already monumental structures<\/b>. Because of the earthquake risks<\/b>, Messina is an incredibly flat city, so the pilone is visible from almost anywhere. It\u2019s surreal to imagine something twice its height dominating that skyline.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m curious to see what happens with Wednesday\u2019s decision<\/b>, since the government now has to determine whether to accept the ruling that the bridge project should be halted<\/b> or to move forward regardless.<\/p>\n

E: The first few interviews for now say that they definitely intend to push on with the project and get it done.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: I know, it seems there\u2019s kind of no stopping them.<\/p>\n

E: Would you like to make a general comment on this last ruling by the Corte dei conti?<\/b><\/p>\n

S: I have a lot of faith in the No-Ponte movement<\/b> and the work they\u2019re doing. What\u2019s surprising is that only this summer did people start to realise the scale of resistance<\/b>. A friend from Puglia told me he\u2019d always heard about the bridge but had never seen photos of the protests<\/b>, and when he did, he was shocked to see thousands of people. At the last protest we joined in August, around ten thousand people<\/b> filled Messina. People came from Villa San Giovanni, from Reggio, crossing by boat to demonstrate together. It was incredible to witness.<\/p>\n

The movement deserves far more attention. They\u2019ve become experts<\/b> on the bridge\u2019s engineering, financial, and legal dimensions, training themselves across all these areas. I\u2019d love to see greater cross-regional solidarity<\/b>, for example, between the No-TAP<\/b> and No-Ponte<\/b> struggles, because, at their core, they\u2019re fighting the same extractive logic<\/b> repeating across territories.<\/p>\n

E: Very probably the same mechanism behind the myths that keep up the projects too.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.<\/p>\n

E: All this makes me think about how important the principle and the right of self-determination of the people is. Especially with what is currently happening in Gaza and the west bank, for example, and how the pattern of denying the possibility of putting it into practice follows the same rhetoric no matter where you are.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Yes, I think it\u2019s important to recognise that this is a phenomenon<\/b> shared across the Global South<\/b>. The use of unfinished or suspended infrastructure<\/b> as a tool of state control<\/b> has appeared repeatedly, from colonial<\/b> to neoliberal<\/b> campaigns. Placing the south of Italy within that lineage helps to make sense of its condition on a broader, global scale<\/b>.<\/p>\n

E: Maybe told this way it may also encourage some extra sense of solidarity.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Exactly. I don\u2019t know where this kind of research will lead me and if I\u2019ll be able to continue it and try to uncover a bit more that would maybe help the Noponte group<\/b>. That would be amazing.<\/p>\n

E: I guess you\u2019re still in contact and I\u2019m guessing that we still have a bit of a battle to bring forward.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Sadly, yes, for sure. But I do have a lot of faith in them and hopefully it\u2019ll be OK. And I would like to say that it\u2019s just the most beautiful place ever. It would be such a shame if Torre Faro<\/b> and other similar places would get destroyed, they are so ecologically special<\/b>. The water of the Strait of Messina<\/b> is so particular and special and the land is too.<\/p>\n

E: Would you like to leave us with a general piece of advice or a comment or anything you\u2019d like to express for the new generation of the Mediterranean?<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Oh, gosh. I don\u2019t know. I think, read Gramsci<\/b>. Let\u2019s read up on these extractive relationships<\/b> and understand how the South of Italy<\/b> is also a part of that lineage. And la lotta prosegua<\/b>!<\/p>\n

E: That\u2019s perfect. Sofia, on behalf of the whole YouthMed team, It was all incredibly interesting and I\u2019d like to thank you ever so much for sharing this information with us, I wish you the best of luck.<\/b><\/p>\n

S: Thank you so much for the support.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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So that\u2019s nearly 20 years and they\u2019ve put on hundreds of different protests and events and festivals about educating people on the values and reasons behind the No bridge movement. This said, it\u2019s clear how one of the pillars, the law, is systematically delegitimising the resistance through legal avenues brought forward by the state, so instead of protecting the people, it\u2019s protecting large-scale infrastructure and business.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mediterranean","category-medvoice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthmed.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthmed.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthmed.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthmed.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthmed.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1065"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthmed.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1072,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthmed.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions\/1072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthmed.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthmed.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthmed.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthmed.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}