Sparks on the eve of the session of the Regional Council convened to start the marathon on the 2024 budget maneuver. Dem councilor Micaela Fanelli attacks: the financial situation has never been so compromised. Governor Francesco Roberti replies: it was also the fault of the PD-led government of a few years ago, but we are making up for the mistakes of the past.
«Never before, despite Roberti’s ostentatious self-assurance, has the financial situation been truly dangerous. Only Councilor Cefaratti and what remains of the regional structure, who worked in truly prohibitive conditions, should be acknowledged for having done everything possible. But, unfortunately, this is not enough and probably will not be enough to put the numbers and figures back in order”, Fanelli’s criticism. And again: «We have completed the round of hearings on the budget knowing that no leaf can be touched. We in the opposition and in the Economic and Social Partnership have been told that no amendments can be tabled. I can also understand it, but then why audit the budget that cannot be touched in any way and not listening to the opinions on the 440 million of the FSC, which were freely usable for investments and they decided with three people in a room?”.
Fanelli then recalls that the agreement with the national government was not signed by February 14th. The deadline was not peremptory but the Dem councilor requests answers on the savings actions that will be implemented (on the basis of that agreement). No savings will be made on staff, Cefaratti assured the Commission. «Good, but it was therefore necessary to increase the expenses of the political staff of the council or those of the general director, who made his appearance in the Regional Council only to read a few lines on an unlikely and ramshackle Defr, that is, the three-year planning document, which does not plans anything because he doesn’t say a word about his intentions regarding the accounts?”.
So Fanelli sums up: «The long budget session will mean that all the accounts and all the illegitimacies will be “easily remedied” in order to get out of the tunnel, but with a heavy cost borne by the people of Molise. The taxes at most are the result of stubborn unhealthy management, which the auditors and the Court of Vonti had thoroughly reprimanded. Nobody ever pays? Not even in political terms? The people of Molise pay that much. We have proposed a commission on regional accounts to provide full clarity. At least on this element those who are not responsible should agree.”
In conclusion, the PD representative asks the centre-right majority to open the dispute over healthcare debt with the national government, «the responsibility of which lies with the government commissioners. Why not do it, at least to obtain a reduction in taxes directly resulting from that?”. To “disturb the friendly government?”. She assures: «I will try to oppose it. I will try to appeal to the tax judge and I will try to have this massacre against the people of Molise declared illegitimate as well as profoundly unjust. Paying the highest price for the worst healthcare cannot still be a sustainable cost for the honest people of Molise.”
The response from the president of the council is dry: «I am pleased to learn how the regional councilor Micaela Fanelli, who will certainly vote unfavorably on the budget during the next and imminent Council, recognizes the enormous effort made by the councilor Gianluca Cefaratti and the work structure carried out, just as you know who to attribute the causes of this financial situation to, which does not depend only on the last Toma government, but above all on those who previously, a regional government led by the Democratic Party, did not take the opportunity to cancel incoming items non-existent.”
Fanelli, continues Roberti, «I also don’t think the comment during the hearing of the Court of Auditors escaped him, that Molise is the only region in Italy to have received such attention and such conspicuous financial aid from part of the central government. This, certainly, not thanks to you and the parliamentarians of the center-left coalition, but thanks to those who, nowadays, demonstrate credibility and political ability every day in Rome. Even in his inappropriate statement about the general director, he had no intellectual honesty in recognizing not only the role but also the fact that a general director receives the same salary as any other regional manager and, without a shadow of a doubt, is worth more than the job carried out by pseudo regional consultants, so dear to councilor Fanelli. Time is a gentleman, so the current damage is certainly not attributable to those who have been in the Region for less than a year and are trying to remove rubble in every sector, unlike those who, like you, have been there for a long time without leaving a trace. if not for miles of press releases.”
