ROME – An ideal bridge between North and South, which the centre-right intends to break with the Differentiated Autonomy, which has arrived in the Chamber of Deputies for final approval.
The President of the Republic did not choose Calabria by chance Sergio Mattarella, to celebrate Labor Day marred by too many deaths on construction sites and by ever-widening socio-territorial inequalities. Last year he was in Reggio Emilia, yesterday in the Cosenza hinterland, where two flagship companies of a region afflicted by endemic unemployment and poverty operate. Which Salvini’s plan now risks worsening.
This seems to be the concern of the head of state: that the gap between the South and the rest of the more advanced and productive country could increase rather than shorten. So shared by the workers of Castrovillari who came to listen to him that when Mattarella, despite never uttering the words “differentiated autonomy”, raises his appeal not to divide Italy, everyone thinks of the Northern League reform now in the home stretch . “A separation of the roads between the territories of the North and the territories of the South would cause serious damage to both”, warns the president, explaining how useful it would be for the entire country to resolve the southern issue once and for all. On the contrary, relegating it to the drawer of “non-urgent problems” is an option that slows down the GDP of the entire country. «The development of the Republic needs the relaunch of the South», insists the tenant of the Quirinale. «It is hardly necessary to underline how balanced and quality growth in the South of Italy ensures great benefits for the entire national territory», he says to applause. “The South is part of Europe”, he urges, asking to move away from a logic of “simplified analyses”.
The problem is in fact complex – reasons the president – and must be addressed by politicians to attenuate and finally erase the unsustainable differences between North and South: significantly lower incomes; less efficient services and healthcare; lower employment rate; disadvantaged women; too many young people forced to leave their homeland to seek their fortune elsewhere. A slew of emergencies that can no longer be ignored. And that certainly doesn’t seem to find an answer in the autonomy of Calderolion which also the Forza Italia governor Roberto Occhiuto advises “prudence”, thanking the head of state, “who embodies the values of national unity and the Constitution”, for his words “on the relaunch of the South”. A sign of total adherence to Mattarella’s speech and a not so veiled message to his Po Valley ally.
But there is also another emergency that is close to the heart of the man from Colle. Reminded several times during his mandate: «We cannot accept the continuous drip of deaths, caused by carelessness, imprudence, risks that should not have been taken. A thousand deaths at work in a year represent an unimaginable tragedy. Each of them is unacceptable.” As well as the treatment often reserved for migrant workers, who “are an essential part of agricultural production”: well “in some cases, gray areas of work – which border on illegality, exploitation or even make use of it – generate injustice and Furthermore, insecurity, tensions, conflicts. Offering spaces to criminal organizations”, denounces the president. «Supervising delinquent forms of gangmastering is, therefore, a precise duty». Just as it is necessary to monitor “the inhuman conditions into which seasonal workers are thrown, sometimes without names or identities”. A ferocious indictment against those who profit from the fragility of others.
Useful hook for the head of state to give himself another dig. Once again not explicit, but very clear, to whom — the General Vannacci — longs for separate classes for disabled people. Unfortunately, concludes Mattarella, “the difficulties of those who endure a disability persist, the weight of the burden of assistance which often pushes even families of those who have a job into need”. And whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.
