«Let’s move Consob and Antitrust to Milan»- Corriere.it

Moving the place of decisions from Rome to Milan. An old battle of the League since the times of Umberto Bossi and which finds new impetus in a bill presented in Montecitorio by the Northern League deputy Silvana Comaroli. The parliamentarian asks to transfer two important authorities to the Lombard capital, Consob (the body that supervises the Stock Exchange) and the Antitrust. A proposal that had already been put forward in the past legislature and which was not the result of an isolated initiative by a single deputy, given that she had received the endorsement of the group leader in the Chamber, Riccardo Molinari. And which was explained thus by Comaroli: Everyone knows perfectly well that the main regulated market of financial instruments in our country is that of Milan, managed by the company Borsa Italiana Spa, and that most of the listed companies are based in northern Italy.

The first reactions were not particularly positive, especially within the centre-right. Both representatives of Forza Italia, such as Maurizio Gasparri, and of Fratelli d’Italia have expressed themselves clearly against the hypothesis of the move advocated by the League. There are those, such as the unions, who have also calculated the costs of the hypothesized transfer to Milan. For Consob, the increase would be 50 million, while for the Antitrust the outlay would be even more significant: at least 70 million, the estimate made a few years ago by the then president Antonio Catrical. Not to mention the problems which the 500 Roman employees of Consob and the 300 of the Antitrust would face due to such a significant shift not within everyone’s reach.

But the League does not give up. And remember the very short-lived experiment of the three ministries – Simplification, Economy, Reforms – which in 2010 the respective ministers Calderoli, Tremonti and Bossi asked to partially transfer to the Villa Reale in Monza. But also other attempts, always related to Consob or like that of transferring a Rai network (in this specific case, Rai2) to Milan, have not been kissed by success. Because the Roman resistance so far has been stronger than the Northern thrusts of the League.