The whispers started in Lombardy. Grew louder in Brussels. Now, the plan is public. Ministers are briefing. The world’s first Vertical Forest City is no longer a blueprint. It’s a procurement target.
Sources at the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure confirm: the Bosco Verticale model is to be scaled. Not one tower. Not two. An entire district. Eight hectares of concrete and steel, wrapped in 50,000 trees and 250,000 shrubs. A carbon-sucking, smog-filtering, bird-attracting beast.
This is not green puffery. This is hard political arithmetic.
Why now? Polling. The centre-left is haemorrhaging votes to the Greens. The 2024 European Parliament results stung. Voters under 35 care about one thing: climate. Not targets. Not treaties. Visible, tangible, living change. A forest you can live in.
Inside the coalition, there is unease. The hard-right Lega calls it “ludicrous vanity.” They want bridges. Roads. The old economy. But Mayor Sala, a former centre-left minister, is gambling. He knows the numbers. Milan’s air quality is third-worst in Europe. The EU is circling with infringement proceedings. A vertical forest is cheaper than fines.
But the game is not without risk. Cost overruns are whispered. Property developers are circling. The first Bosco Verticale towers cost €7,000 per square metre. Double the average. Who pays? Taxpayers. Investors. The tension is real.
Backbench rebellions are brewing. Five junior ministers signed a letter last week demanding “fiscal realism.” They want the project split. Phased. Tested. But the PM’s office is pushing full steam. They have a model. They have EU green funds. And they have a narrative.
“If Milan can do this, any city can,” a senior aide told me. Off the record. Over a glass of Barolo. The implication was clear: this is a test case for the entire European Green Deal.
Outside, the scaffolding is rising. Workers in hard hats are planting the first subterranean root barriers. The concrete footings are laid. By 2028, 12,000 people will live there. Breathe there. Watch the leaves change colour from their balconies.
But the true test is political. Can Labour hold the line? Can the Greens be co-opted? Will the backlash break?
I’ll be watching the tea leaves. And the tree leaves.
Eleanor Rigby
Political Bureau Chief
