Meloni to the Anci: better define the abuse of office, no to the fear of the signature

“I think the time has come to address the issue of the responsibility of local administrators”. So the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni intervened with a video message to the assembly of the national association of Italian municipalities (Anci).

“It is absolutely necessary, as I see it, to better define, starting from the abuse of office, the penal rules concerning public administrators, rules whose perimeter is today so elastic as to lend itself to interpretations that are too discretionary” , Meloni said, underlining that this makes “risky choices, with the consequences of the” fear of the signature “that nails the nation. We cannot leave the administrators at the mercy. I announce it to you: the government will intervene “.

The premier assured the mayors gathered in Bergamo of her government’s intention to “give a new centrality to the municipalities of Italy”.

The theme of the budget law surfaced several times in Meloni’s speech, starting with the impossibility of being physically present at the Anci assembly: “I am sorry I cannot participate in person, I would never have missed being present in person , as you know we are not in a normal condition”, he said: “The government was born in a particular period for the birth of a government, in which there are very complex deadlines” such as the budget law on which “we are working on the maximum speed”.

“Unfortunately – Meloni said again – we have the sword of Damocles of expensive energy that drains resources. Interventions to reduce costs cost us around 5 billion euros a month: we are studying the proposals that have arrived, if the European Commission does not intervene it will be difficult to cope at these costs”.

As for the national recovery and resilience plan, “we must verify with the EU the most suitable measures to update the Pnrr”, said the premier. “As the president said Mattarellathe Pnrr is an appointment that Italy cannot avoid, an extraordinary opportunity to modernize Italy: Municipalities, Provinces and Regions are important to prevent resources from remaining on paper”.

Meloni also addressed the issue of presidentialism reforms and differentiated autonomy, assuring, with regard to the latter, that “our work intends to move on the basis of the Constitution”: “The greater autonomy of the regions does not mean creating disparities between citizens” but “allow the regions that are most behind to catch up”.

There was no lack of mention of the war in Ukraine: “I want to send a hug to the mayor of Lviv”, said Meloni: “The Italian government will continue to be proudly aligned in support of the Ukrainian cause”.

Giorgia Meloni praised the role of the mayors, referring to the stories of John Guareschi on Don Camillo And Peppone: the mayors, he said, face the problems “often with insufficient tools” to give “effective answers” but “if someone is afraid of being mayor they better do another job”. The premier thanked the first citizens “for how they maintained the connection with citizens and I would also like to say, I hope I am not misunderstood, for how they saved face of the Italian institutions in their relationship with citizens”.