Banksy's migrant child mural is partially submerged in Venice, Italy, Friday, 15 November 2019. Exceptionally high tidal waters returned to Venice on Friday, prompting the mayor to close the iconic St. Mark's Square and call for donations to repair the Italian lagoon city just three days after it experienced its worst flooding in 50 years. Photo: Luca Bruno / AP Photo
Banksy’s migrant child mural is partially submerged in Venice, Italy, Friday, 15 November 2019. Exceptionally high tidal waters returned to Venice on Friday, prompting the mayor to close the iconic St. Mark’s Square and call for donations to repair the Italian lagoon city just three days after it experienced its worst flooding in 50 years. Photo: Luca Bruno / AP Photo

By Gianluca Mezzofiore
15 November 2019

(CNN) – Veneto regional council, which is located on Venice’s Grand Canal, was flooded for the first time in its history on Tuesday night — just after it rejected measures to combat climate change.

The historic Italian city has been brought to its knees this week by the worst flooding there in more than 50 years.

And the council chamber in Ferro Fini Palace started to take in water around 10 p.m. local time, as councilors were debating the 2020 regional budget, Democratic Party councilor Andrea Zanoni said in a long Facebook post.

“Ironically, the chamber was flooded two minutes after the majority League, Brothers of Italy, and Forza Italia parties rejected our amendments to tackle climate change,” Zanoni, who is deputy chairman of the environment committee, said in the post, which also has photographs of the room under water.

The council chamber in Ferro Fini Palace in Venice, which is located on Venice’s Grand Canal, was flooded for the first time in its history on Tuesday night, 12 November 2019 – just after the Veneto regional council rejected measures to combat climate change. Photo: Andrea Zanoni
The council chamber in Ferro Fini Palace in Venice, which is located on Venice’s Grand Canal, was flooded for the first time in its history on Tuesday night, 12 November 2019 – just after the Veneto regional council rejected measures to combat climate change. Photo: Andrea Zanoni

Among the rejected amendments were measures to fund renewable sources, to replace diesel buses with “more efficient and less polluting ones,” to scrap polluting stoves and reduce the impact of plastics, he said.

Zanoni went on to accuse Veneto regional president Luca Zaia, who is a member of Matteo Salvini’s far-right League Party, of presenting a budget “with no concrete actions to combat climate change.”

The regional council’s spokesman Alessandro Ovizach confirmed to CNN that the council was flooded after discussing amendments to the 2020 budget — without specifying which ones. [more]

Italian council is flooded immediately after rejecting measures on climate change