Italy’s Court of Auditors on Wednesday rejected the government’s plan to build a long-debated bridge from mainland Italy to Sicily, dealing a body blow to one of Rome’s most ambitious infrastructure projects.

The ruling temporarily halts efforts to construct the €13.5 billion bridge across the Strait of Messina. The court, which oversees public spending, announced its decision late Wednesday and said it would release its full reasoning within 30 days.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the decision as “an act of overreach into the jurisdiction of the Government and Parliament,” insisting her administration had addressed all the technical questions raised by the court.

“To give an idea of the sophistry, one of the objections concerned the transmission of lengthy documents via links, as if the accounting judges were unaware of the existence of computers,” Meloni said.

Envisioned as the world’s longest suspension bridge, the Messina project has been proposed and abandoned multiple times over the past five decades. It has long been controversial due to the risks of seismic activity and doubts over its economic viability, environmental impact and related legal concerns.

Wednesday’s ruling casts fresh doubt over the project’s future. Meloni’s government now faces a critical choice: to accept the ruling and revise the proposal, or appeal and seek provisional authorization, which would make the government fully liable for the project and any legal consequences.

If built, the 3.7-kilometer bridge would connect the “toe” of Italy’s boot to Sicily’s northeastern tip, transforming the country’s southern transport links while ranking among its most expensive public works.

Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, who once opposed the bridge but is now its leading advocate, denounced the court’s decision as inflicting “serious damage to the country” and called it “a political choice rather than a serene technical judgment.”

“While waiting for the reasons, I want to make it clear that I did not stop when I had to defend the borders, and I will not stop now,” Salvini said. “This is a project supported even by Europe, one that will bring development and thousands of jobs from south to north. We are determined to take all possible paths to start the works. Let’s move forward.”