Drought, timed commissioner arrives until 31 December

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An extraordinary commissioner to deal with the drought emergency, but who will remain in office “for a limited time”, until 31 December 2023, with “a renewable position and with a very detailed perimeter of competences”. This is the compromise that made it possible to overcome the impasse in the Government during the control room, presided over yesterday at Palazzo Chigi by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, in the presence of Ministers Francesco Lollobrigida (Agriculture), Nello Musumeci (Sea Policies and Civil Protection), Roberto Calderoli (Regional Affairs), the Deputy Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Vannia Gava (Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin was flying to New York for the UN Conference on water), and the undersecretaries to the Prime Minister Alfredo Mantovano and Alessandro Morelli. All accompanied by their respective technicians.

At the beginning of the meeting – which government sources describe as “long and fruitful” – the basic distances between the majority parties materialized (see, most recently, Il Sole 24 Ore yesterday). On the one hand, the position of Fdi, reaffirmed a few minutes earlier by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Senate Chamber in her reply to the communications in view of the European Council: «We have inherited a complex issue. We are working on a control room, for a national plan in agreement with the Regions, using new technologies and launching an awareness campaign. The Government is working on a regulatory provision with simplifications and exemptions to speed up essential works. We also intend to work towards the identification of an extraordinary commissioner who has executive powers with respect to what is defined by the control room».

It is the scheme that was envisaged at the end of the first meeting of the drought table, on 1 March, and which, however, the League did not like, which with Salvini leads the department most involved in the dossier (for funds and responsibilities) and which sees in the supercommissioner a threat to autonomy. The Carroccio has alternatively proposed the faculty of appointing commissioners only in some specific cases.

Finding the right balance required the mediation of Lollobrigida (who moves in defense of the agricultural sector severely hit by drought and said he was «not interested in governance, but in the concrete solution of problems») and Musumeci, who had proposed a commissioner for three years (see the interview opposite). The shared result is a two-pronged decision-making structure: the control room “to accelerate and coordinate the planning of medium and long-term infrastructural interventions” and the commissioner until the end of the year, renewable, to “act on territorial areas at high risk » and «unblock short-term interventions». A note from Palazzo Chigi listed them: cleaning and degreasing of water collection reservoirs, increasing the capacity of reservoirs, management and use of wastewater, mediation in the event of conflicts between Regions and local authorities on water matters, recognition of water needs national. “Technical evaluations are underway to formalize the definitive solution”, warns the same note.

The arrival of the “water decree” at the Council of Ministers scheduled for Tuesday 28 March will also depend on this. But it’s not just a question of rules: there is the name of the commissioner to identify. And there is still no agreement on the identikit: whether he will be a technician or a politician. In the meantime, oppositions sting one another. Mariastella Gelmini (Azione) hopes that the work of the control room «is not further slowed down by the internal frictions of the majority». While Angelo Bonelli (Avs) attacks: “This government thinks it can solve the drought with yet another control room, but not with a change in energy and environmental policies which have been the same for decades responsible for the climate disaster”.