The national president Roberto Rossini intervenes in the debate: «Veneto, Lombardia and Emilia-Romagna ask for more competences than the other Regions with ordinary statute. Similar requests are arriving from Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany, Marche, Umbria and Campania. There are two questions that must guide those called to decide. Will we have improved the lives of all our fellow citizens or will we have taken care of only a part? Will we have used freedom for greater equality or for greater inequality?”
«The political controversy of recent days has brought the issue of differentiated autonomy back to the attention of public opinion. The discussion, however, is conditioned by a lot of propaganda and almost never enters into the merits of the issues and this does not help to form conscious positions". Roberto Rossini, 54, from Brescia, national president of the ACLI since 2016, intervenes in the debate on autonomy. Starting with summarizing the main terms of the question. «Veneto, Lombardia and Emilia-Romagna ask for more competences than the other Regions with ordinary statute, on the basis of article 116 of the Constitution. An initial agreement between the three Regions and the State was signed by the Gentiloni government in February 2018. The Lega-M5S Government continued the process of implementing the autonomy and, in February 2019, published the texts of the draft agreements».
«But not everything is so smooth», observes Rossini: «The modalities with which an agreement is reached between the State and the Regions concerned have not yet been defined; there is no regulation of the implementation procedure; the fact-finding activity started by the two permanent bilateral commissions is still ongoing in Parliament; finally, other requests are also arriving, from Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany, Marche, Umbria and Campania».
In short, the matter becomes complex. "There are some specific critical issues to report, four at least," points out the national president of ACLI. «The first critical issue concerns the subjects of the negotiation. So far the process has only taken place between the executives: the government on one side, the regional councils on the other. Parliament is still missing. However, the presidents Casellati and Fico have ensured the involvement of the Chambers and it cannot be otherwise: the Parliament of the Republic must be able to express itself clearly since it is unthinkable that its role is reduced to a mere ratification. What is missing is a real discussion and mobilization in the country, between the social bodies, in public opinion, which can guide the legislator and the Government".
«The second criticality is consequential and concerns the model to be pursued: what is the reference?», continues Rossini. «The institution of the Regions also had the objective of mitigating the economic and social differences within the country. It didn't exactly go like this, and today we see it more and more clearly: the gap between north and south is growing. This process of autonomy, as it is proceeding, risks going in the same direction. We are going towards a national State in which we will have Regions with ordinary statute, then some with special statute and then still others with differentiated autonomy, with different regimes according to the functions obtained on the subjects, perhaps with different tax sharing rates and with differentiated attributions of responsibilities with the Municipalities and local bodies. Not to mention the two most sensitive sectors: health and education. Don't you risk producing (perhaps unintentionally) a confused model? The principles of equality and solidarity, at the basis of our constitutional architecture, would instead suggest a cooperative model, with responsibility and the national interest at the center».
«The third criticality concerns the materials. In the case of the Veneto they are simply all the possible ones, as per article 117 of the Constitution: from school to transport, from healthcare to waste disposal, from work to training up to the direct management of sites recognized by Unesco. For the other Regions the requests are more limited. Therefore we would have more regional systems and regulations for the various subjects and it is therefore unavoidable to define precisely how the essential levels of assistance and essential levels of services will be guaranteed for all Italian citizens. These are areas of our community life, the functioning methods of the public sector and the provision of fundamental public services in Italy that must not have territorial discrimination".
«Finally the financial resources. As in many cases, the central question remains, which should be the premise for everything else. It is a question of reconciling two needs, the autonomy of the territories and solidarity between the territories, guaranteeing all citizens the essential levels of services. The governors of the three regions have often repeated that the agreements will be at no cost to the state and citizens. But how do these two things fit together: the Lep guaranteed at a central level and the financial resources disbursed on the basis of standard needs to an economically privileged extent? In fact, the three Regions ask to withhold resources and therefore, automatically, to share in the State debt in a different way with the risk that this burden is passed on to the other Regions. It is the crucial topic of the discussion. We need to counter the positions of those who, with differentiated autonomy, actually aim to retain the so-called tax residue in their own regions, i.e. the difference between the tax revenues withdrawn and those that are actually spent in that specific territory".
Roberto Rosini limits himself to «a single conclusion, for the moment»: «To say that all Regions are the same does not mean treating them all in the same way. The State is a guarantee but the Regions can be a great opportunity to re-read the way we respond to the needs of our fellow citizens today. It is also right to take into account some conditions that make the Regions different, to enhance them or to help them ensure that every Italian citizen enjoys a good quality of life, regardless of where they decide to grow up or study, work or get married. However, this objective must be pursued bearing in mind that the architecture of a state is a complex thing: moving an element means causing effects in many other areas as well. This is why a similar process requires an approach that must be very cautious, very wise and very little exposed to electoral dynamics. Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna pose important questions: but we need to go further, taking up the challenge of modernizing the whole Republic.
«Italy will not be divided by article 116 of the Constitution because it already is. In this regard, I would just like to mention a survey by IREF-ACLI on the 5 Italys or the very recent report by Fondazione Etica on the public rating of the regions. It is on this that perhaps the institutions, politics and society should question themselves and try to implement concrete choices and projects, because, at the end of all this. we will ask ourselves only one more thing: will we have improved the lives of all our fellow citizens or will we have only taken care of a part? Will we have used freedom for greater equality or for greater inequality?”
(from Famigliacritstiana.it - 14/7/2019)
