Ah, but if there is money to do justice to the South, no problem with differentiated autonomy. There would be, Minister Calderoli said in Bari: «I want to think not only about defining the rights of the South, but also about financing them». Although the current and penultimate Budget Law have said that everything must happen with “spending unchanged”, that is, without additional spending. Arriving at a sort of secular miracle: I ascertain that the South has been penalized compared to the rest of the country (which had the highest “historical expenditure”), I calculate how much this penalty amounts to, I have to remedy it but I don’t have an additional euro to do it . So, according to the law of logic, I take from those who have had more and give to those who have had less: that is, I cause a civil war. At another time (it goes by now) Calderoli had said: the Regions should think about it themselves by reducing their waste. Another attempt at civil war.
When we talk about Southern rights, we are talking about essential rights, not about a more beautiful monumental fountain. We talk about healthcare, schools, nurseries, local public transport, care for the elderly. That is, we are talking about public services that the State has financed in the South less than elsewhere, with the greatest self-violation of the Constitution in the history of mankind. We are talking about something that has been impacting the quality of life in the South for decades, not some Saturday night pleasure. We’re talking about citizens who haven’t been able to get treatment like the others, we’re talking about children who haven’t been able to educate themselves like the others, we’re talking about travelers who haven’t had trains like the others. We talk about Italians differently than Italians.
Now it should be possible to remedy this not thanks to the greater autonomy of the Regions, but by defining these needs of the South even as baggage following that autonomy to the Northern Regions which have requested it. Everything is fine, as long as it gets done. Does Minister Calderoli want an indicative evaluation? According to the Territorial Public Accounts (stuff from the ministry of your colleague Giorgetti) every year 60 billion are taken away from the South, because for every southern citizen the State spends less than for every central-northern citizen.
This will be confirmed by the Lep (Essential Performance Levels) which Calderoli himself announced as ready in December. Indeed they must be Lup, uniform levels. Because otherwise Puglia and Basilicata could be given an extra hospital each, saying that it is essential for them, while Lombardy is given two. No, the essential must be calculated on the number of citizens, not with three-card rules. Because some tricks have already appeared: such as saying that we must take into account the regions where life costs more. Cost about which the same Istat (National Statistics Institute) has warned: if a Venetian orders a coffee laced with grappa and a Calabrian a coffee and that’s it, will the Venetian complain about having paid more? This is how it has been until now.
Everything else is Cosa Loro. Does Italy, one and indivisible, want to break up into twenty-one little republics that will be worth as much as a sword on the international level? Let this government go ahead with your League. Does Prime Minister Meloni believe that Autonomy is an “opportunity for all territories”? Whoever has the electoral majority in the country has the right to say so (even if, according to a Ghisleri survey, only three out of ten Italians are in favor of this autonomy). And whoever governs has the right to have his powers (and duties) plundered by Regions which, like Veneto, have already asked to create their own healthcare and schools by taking them away from the State. And whoever governs has the right to empty the central administration in favor of local administrations, making Rome an honorary capital and Italy a Babel. And whoever governs with a coalition has the right to create discontent within his own coalition.
Just gossip? Well, it was Deputy Prime Minister Tajani who said that what goes to the suburbs is taken away from the government and Parliament. It was Tajani himself who told the Regions to keep the Regions hands off foreign trade (his competence). It was Minister Musumeci who growled that whoever wants to take over civil protection (his responsibility) is attentive to national security (the Venetian governor Zaia replied to him: «Don’t worry, no one will take away his desk»). And it would be interesting to know what Minister Piantedosi thinks about the firefighters being removed from his responsibility. While a battle is underway on the Constitutional Court (which will have to decide on the referendums against Autonomy): who do we put in place so that they are rejected?
All this is not because the South is recognized as having been denied so far (if it happens, deo gratias). But first of all because those who have had more try to have even more. They create Chaos and call it Autonomy.
