The usual dance on Autonomy. Calderoli tries again, Meloni brakes: “No to Serie A and B territories”

One step forward and one step back. The dance, the canvas, is roughly always the same. It has been repeating itself for some months now: Robert Calderoli he tries the shot, relaunches differentiated autonomy, and someone from the upper floors of the Brothers of Italy – from Lollobrigida to Rampelli – intervenes and tones down the tones, holding back the minister. And then from the Carroccio they try, not without intolerance, to realign themselves. It happened again in these hours, Giorgia Meloni took charge of it directly.

Thus, while the head of regional affairs delivered the new draft of the bill to his counterparts, which will be analyzed today in the pre-council, the prime minister reiterated the stakes: “We do not resign ourselves to the idea that there are territories and services of series A and B”he said in front of the audience of mayors, gathered by the thousands in Rome for the presentation of the Poste Italiane’s ‘Polis-House of digital services’ projectwhich will bring a one-stop shop in the smallest countries, through which to request documents and services directly, rather than going back and forth between one office and another.

Meloni spoke to the administrators, certainly. But it’s also clear that the timing wasn’t chosen by chance. “There is no room for personalisms and small political squabbles on the skin of citizens”, warned the Prime Minister. And again: “All institutional levels must loyally help each other”. It is difficult not to grasp the reference to the Carroccio and its forward escapes. On the other hand, it is no mystery that autonomy is not exactly Meloni’s priority, indeed he would like to keep in the drawer for now, aware of how slippery this ground is for a majority that has recently, so to speak, already wrapped up in wiretapping.

Brothers of Italy, he has reiterated several times, would rather like autonomy to go hand in hand with presidentialism – “the mother of all reforms” – with much more extended times. Then came the reply of the Leaguewhich on the one hand was said in “absolute agreement” with the premier, but on the other hand he specified: “The Italians of Serie A and Serie B are here today. We want to unite them in the name of efficiency and autonomy”.

The main node, which has been dragging on for some time, remains the The P (the essential levels of performance): how to ensure uniformity across the territory, how they should be defined and by whom. Calderoli has been repeating for weeks that his project will take it into account, even going as far as threatening to sue anyone who claims that his plan “would split Italy”. A position that basically does not convince even the government allies. So much so that the vice president of the Chamber Fabio Rampelli, in mid-January, he intervened, warning: “We are still paying the consequences for the haste and lack of sharing with which we approved the reform of Title V. If I were Minister Calderoli I wouldn’t want to end up like Bassanini criticized by all the administrators, right and left. The architecture of the state needs to be improved, but one can no longer go wrong, on pain of collapse”.

Obstacles which, however, Calderoli believes can be overcome – if not already overcome – by the draft bill which will be discussed today in view of Thursday’s Council of Ministers. “The transfer of functions concerning matters or areas of matter referable to the Lep, can be carried out, according to the methods and quantification procedures identified by the individual agreements, only after the determination of the same Lep and the relative costs and standard needs”, we read in article 4 of the document. As for the agreements, and the skills required, the regions will define them, then transmitting the deed to the Prime Minister, who will therefore have a central role, the last word. And this is a choice that marks a new step, because in recent days the centrality of Parliament – which today becomes more lateral – had never been questioned. Furthermore, all agreements will have a duration “not exceeding ten years”. There will certainly be controversies and distinctions, even the governors of the south headed by Forza Italia have never hidden their perplexities in recent months.

But for the League, at least for the moment, this is perhaps secondary. More important is to bring home a result – even if minimal – in view of the regionals. And in particular those in Lombardy where the question is deeply felt. And if the reconfirmation of Attilio Fontanana – polls in hand – does not seem to be under discussion, the very delicate issue concerning the balance of power within the majority is different. The Carroccio needs to relaunch itself, in the September policies it was more than doubled by FdI. In the meantime, Umberto Bossi’s North Committee was also born, to go back to the origins. And another electoral blowout at home, for Salvini, would not be easy to explain.