There is a clash between Italy and Switzerland over the medical costs of the few hours of hospitalization of three Italian boys rescued from the Sion hospital. The request for reimbursement of 100 thousand Swiss francs (equal to just over 108 thousand euros) for the compatriots injured in the Crans Montana fire and treated in the Sion hospital becomes a diplomatic case. “An ignoble request that we will not follow up on,” Prime Minister Meloni immediately responded. And Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani added: “The responsibility lies with those who did not carry out the checks, not with Italy.”
The official response was then entrusted to our ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado who recalled that for “the Swiss citizens treated at Niguarda” and for “the contribution of the civil protection of the Aosta Valley to the rescue: there is a principle of reciprocity that must be respected” and that nothing was asked either from the family members or from Switzerland for the two months of hospitalization of the Swiss citizens at the Niguarda hospital in Milan.
Just during a meeting with our ambassador the president of the Valais Council of State Mathias Reynard had confirmed that, from his point of view, there is no legal margin for direct assumption of the medical costs associated with injured Italian citizens in the New Year’s Eve tragedy in Crans-Montana. “We have no margin from a regulatory point of view to take on these expenses,” he said after the invoices sent to Italian families had been released. Italy instead asks for reciprocity and recalls that the responsibility for the New Year’s Eve tragedy involves the owners of the venue and the lack of checks by the Swiss authorities and that it was not a normal accident.
He also reiterates that the hospitalization and treatment costs of the Swiss citizens hospitalized in Italy were much greater than those borne by Switzerland for our compatriots, but that no expense report was sent from Italy to either the children’s families or to the Swiss State or the cantons.
Last February 2nd, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella also visited the Milanese hospital bringing comfort to hospitalized children.
