«In the Council of Ministers, a comic skit for electoral purposes to help the League»- Corriere.it

«The drama of the applause in the Council of Ministers gives the impression that they were in a damned hurry to try to get Fontana to win the elections in Lombardy and not make the League look bad. Only a kind of return to the pre-unification state can derive from this draft, which furthermore favors the path of direct agreement with the single Region”. Michele Emiliano, Puglia’s Pd president, is both worried and wary.

President, however, you were not against differentiated autonomy.

“No, in fact I’m not. No regional president is against giving more powers to the regions. But this, given that they have not yet delivered the provision that went to the CDM, is not a design that gives more powers to the Regions, finances the matters conferred, ensures that Parliament plays a leading role in the process it triggers and is consistent with a vision of constitutional restructuring of the Village”.

What aspects worry you?

«Article 8 on the invariance of expenditure. A clause that says that there is not a single euro on the financing of the Lep. But without money, how can essential levels of performance be guaranteed? Unacceptable”.

What else?

«This expenditure invariance also seems to concern the new powers assigned to the Regions: once the function was transferred, the State would not transfer the relative budget chapter, but would only guarantee the leveling of the difference between the regional tax revenue and what is necessary to ensure the services. A cumbersome system that would put the South out of the game, exposing it to continuous blackmail, waiting for the expense faced to be covered. With consequences on the financial level of the institutions”.

In the drafts of the previous government, however, were the resources guaranteed upstream?

“Of course. Ministers Boccia and Carfagna had envisaged a 4.5 billion infrastructure equalization fund. Insufficient, but a principle was introduced».

How much money would it take?

“To rebalance the difference between historical expenditure and the Lep, and therefore to implement the principle that all citizens are entitled to the same level of benefit, I believe 50-60 billion are needed”.

Of this first step in the direction of Autonomy does it save anything?

«My impression is that the government was in a damned hurry to stage the move to the Council of Ministers with relative applause, to bring the Lega’s electoral campaign to a decent end. A comic skit, whose goal is not Autonomy ».

And what would be the end?

«Try to make Fontana win in Lombardy and, in any case, not make the League look bad compared to FdI, in the region in which it built its history. This acceleration has only this purpose».

In short, would the green light in the Council of Ministers be a bluff in your opinion?

«Let’s say that I see two possible landing places. The first: a form of differentiated autonomy is truly being implemented which favors the rich regions over the poorer ones. It disrupts national unity and does enormous damage to the country. But it is a scenario in which I do not believe: Giorgia Meloni, who brought to government a right with a super-centralist culture, after 70 years, is she really about to give more power to the Regions?

The alternative?

«Yesterday’s approval is an operation designed only to please the League which, starting tomorrow, I bet, will display on Lombardy’s electoral posters: “Autonomy Approved”. I understand that a League dubbed by FdI also in Lombardy would be a problem for the government, but it is still an unfair game, in bad faith and on the skin of the voters. And it also creates discontent among the presidents of the center-right region ».