Calderoli on Ischia: “With autonomy, stop passing the buck on responsibility”

Differentiated autonomy will be a valid tool against the “passing the buck” of responsibilities also with regard to building abuses, an issue under the spotlight today due to the tragedy in Ischia. The Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies said it, Roberto Calderoli, at the event underway at Hangar Bicocca in Milan “Lombardia 2030″: «I believe that differentiated autonomy has the task of establishing once and for all who does what and who are responsible so that we can no longer witness blame games for which no one then did anything, either in terms of demolitions or prevention”. Meanwhile, the path of autonomy reform continues: «By the end of 2022 we hope to have a tool for defining the Lep (essential levels of services, ed), costs and needs» and from here «within a year to start the transfer of these skills». The minister speaks of a “not simple” path: “There is a Constitution waiting to be implemented and there are the demands of some regions that see autonomy as a further possibility of growth and success”.

Calderoli then returns to the theme of the provinces: «I believe it is necessary to recreate the subject of the province, which must be elected in its president and in the Council with a direct electoral mechanism. The redefinition of an intermediate project between regions, large municipalities and above all small municipalities is something decisive». Regarding the concerns expressed by the Southern Regions on the reform of differentiated autonomy, according to Calderoli they can be overcome «by defining the essential levels, which concern the civil and social rights that must be guaranteed throughout the national territory. This should reduce those inequalities that are present on the territory which are not consequences of autonomy but are a consequence of centralized management”. Indeed, with autonomy “there can be many prospects for the regions of the South as well, which should not see it as a danger, but the possibility for them to accelerate compared to the speed with which they are going now”.

Calderoli then replies to the words of the governor of the Campania Region, Vincenzo De Luca, who defined the reform as “rickety”: «Having not yet finished writing it, I hope you have the patience to wait for the definitive text, then later you can formulate your judgement. But, for example, no one expected anyone to put the definition of the essential level of services and the definition of costs and standard needs into stability law, which was one of the first questions asked by De Luca and Emiliano. So my answer comes with deeds and not with words. On the sidelines of his speech, the minister also comments on the story of Aboubakar Soumahoro who teaches how “public money must be used well and its use controlled”.