The president of the committee representing the families of the 43 victims of the Genoa Morandi bridge collapse on Wednesday condemned remarks made by star photographer Oliviero Toscani who reportedly said "who cares if a bridge falls".
"Forty-three innocents dead - they might not count for him but they were everything to us", said Egle Possetti, president of the 'Ricordo Vittime Moranti (Remembering the victims of the Morandi bridge) committee.
Possetti called Toscani's statements "inappropriate and confused".
Possetti also said in the statement on Wednesday: "We have been expecting every day, for nearly 18 months, some new idea - sometimes someone uses our dead to gain visibility or to communicate idiocies".
The well-known photographer made the remarks during a RAI radio program to comment a controversy sparked by a photograph portraying the founders of the popular Sardines grassroots movement together with him and Luciano Benetton, whose family controls Autostrade per l'Italia.
The company has been accused of being responsible for the collapse of the Morandi bridge because it failed to take the necessary action to prevent the disaster in August 2018.
"Who cares if a bridge collapses, let's stop it", said Toscani, who has long collaborated with the Benettons and worked on several ad campaigns for their clothing company.
The photo was snapped at a cultural center called Fabrica set up by Benetton and directed by Toscani and has sparked criticism within the Sardines anti-populist movement and beyond with members accused of letting themselves by exploited by Benetton.
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