RIMINI – “Today, in a system which, after the half-made choice to cancel the provinces as intermediate bodies, is still searching for the optimal framework suited to the new challenges of the present and future, the role of the capital municipalities becomes fundamental, especially those included in a much larger territorial area such as that of the 2016 seismic crater, which includes four regions and which in fact has determined a natural territorial macro-region which represents the most important construction site in Europe, also for the resources that have been made available for reconstruction and regeneration, also through the tools of the CIS and the PNRR earthquake. In this macro-region the function of the capital municipalities goes beyond the institutional role of a link with the rest of the territory and must go in the direction of promoting a network that works towards a future perspective of overall regeneration of the entire territory of Central Italy”.
Thus the president of Anci Abruzzo and mayor of Teramo, Gianguido D’Alberto, who this morning took part in the “109 Cities, one country” event in Rimini. The capital cities of Italy”, organized by Anci as part of the “MediAree – Next Generation City” project, financed by the Department of Public Function under the complementary program to the PON Governance and Institutional Capacity 2014-2020.
D’Alberto spoke within the panel “The role of capital municipalities in the country system” and explored the complex and challenging function of capital cities within the seismic crater of Central Italy.
A network and work which, highlighted D’Alberto, “the cities of Teramo, Macerata, Rieti and Ascoli Piceno have already implemented in recent years, in the dialogue between mayors and territories, despite the additional difficulties of their territories where the capital municipalities, in addition to the problems affecting all medium-sized cities, also had to deal with the depopulation caused by the earthquake. In Teramo alone, where no victims were recorded, around 4 thousand displaced people were registered.”
“In this situation, in which the risk for the capital municipalities was that of entering into competition with the internal areas and therefore having difficulty in taking on a leading role – continued D’Alberto – the perception of the common destiny of these territories and this was of fundamental importance. We have in fact tried to increasingly develop the ability to act as a driving force within a vast area, even extra-regional. I am thinking for example of Unico Gran Sasso, which brought together the 23 municipalities of the 2016/2017 seismic crater through which we brought the demands of a macro-territory to the tables where the future of the areas affected by the earthquake was decided and continues to be decided which in 2016 shocked Central Italy, and which sees not the capital municipality as the leader, but an inland municipality, that of Crognaleto, to give a signal of importance and growth for the inland areas. An ATS where the role of the capital is that of balance and driving force, also to intercept funding and move from a vast area perspective. In Teramo, where I am mayor, we have also worked for example for a large-area social sphere, bringing together other municipalities with a view to institutional solidarity and territorial coalitions, which represent the only possibility of development for the territories”.
D’Alberto then highlighted the need for further human and instrumental resources for the Municipalities: “The staff of the Municipalities are always the same, one day they wear the shirt of reconstruction, the day after that of the PNRR, the following day that of ordinary practices – he concluded – with all that this entails regarding control and verification activities which, rather than simplifying, burden the procedures”.
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