The Municipality of Catania today approved the 2024/2026 budget forecast. It should have done so by December 31 last year; then by March 15 this year. Only after the intervention of the Sicilian Region which proposed sending a commissioner, the council meeting was convened in a very short time and the document was approved.
I criticize the 5 Star Movement
The group leader was forced to opt to hold the council meeting in a mixed, completely informal way, i.e. online and in person. But there is some irony in this passage. In fact the budget is constrained. It is not possible to make any changes in the sums allocated to the different spending programs. «In short, useless reading and study if the council cannot give any direction to government action. This is due to the fact that although the five years of the bankruptcy ended on 31 December 2023, in reality the bankruptcy continues because the administration would not have been able to absorb the debt not yet repaid by the liquidation commission”, they state the five-star councilors.
The council found itself faced with a large list of public works «which it has never approved and whose implementation times and overall logic it does not know. As if that wasn’t enough, the administration appeared in the chamber totally unprepared for some amendments presented by the opposition on the DUP (Single Planning Document). In fact, in the chamber he did not provide exhaustive answers on the management of real estate assets, in some cases the object of investment but at the same time included in the divestment plan, forcing the President to an embarrassing interruption of the session”.
For the Five Star Movement it was «a real suspension of democracy, which is taking on more and more illiberal colours. But if rights are compressed on one side they will be felt on another side. In a certainly disorganized and not at all efficient way. In short, a real disaster.”
The intervention of the Mpa
“We are in favor of the financial document, but on the condition that from tomorrow we start talking about the Municipalities”. This is what was declared by the Mpa city councilorsOrazio Grasso, Serena Spoto, Daniela Rotella and Angelo Scuderi on the sidelines of the last session of the assembly meeting to approve the 2024-2026 budget forecast. «The Mpa – continue the councilors – will stand by Mayor Trantino throughout the process, but it is necessary to restore dignity to the suburbs and at the same time decentralize administrative political power. Today, town halls remain empty containers with councilors debased in their role, who also find it embarrassing to express their opinion in documents such as the DUP or the Budget itself. We need to reverse the trend.”.
