All commitments made by Schifani downgraded to mere statements of principle, while the electoral campaign progresses and the absence of government proves to be increasingly burdensome. Sicily has been reduced to a land of illusions and catwalks, like that of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who seemed to have landed at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo to indulge in mega selfies put together by the candidates of Fratelli d’Italia and the mayors of Serie A (those of Serie B did not receive a cent). In reality, you were there to deliver to the governor of the island a 6.8 billion aid package, equivalent to the amount of the Development and Cohesion Funds, to remedy years of neglect and backwardness.
Among the various items are the watermakers have sprung up, that is, one of the initiatives conceived by the so-called control room established at Palazzo d’Orleans last month to remedy the damage of the drought and the political vacuum. Schifani, before bringing together the most trained technicians on earth and having distributed a handbook for rationing water consumption, had asked for a hand from the same national government which last Monday brought European resources as a gift. Which at the time, however, had responded poorly to the aid plan of over 700 million illustrated by the governor. He got twenty of them to buy the tankers from the Municipalities. So he decided to put his hand in his wallet with a couple of useful initiatives to calm – but it wasn’t enough – the protest of astonished breeders and farmers, as well as of Coldiretti, the “armed” arm of minister (friend) Lollobrigida. In a letter addressed to the association, Schifani reiterated how Sicily is suffering from the most serious drought of the last 50 years and how, in addition to the Roman crumbs, others are on the way from his government: 10 million destined for the purchase of fodder and the transport of water for livestock farms and 3 million for the financing of projects for the search for new water sources, for the evaluation of the possibility of reactivating some desalination plants and for the construction of water pipes to alleviate the conditions of crisis in some areas of the island.
A little money that won’t solve nothing at all, and in the meantime not even a drizzle despite the frequent invoking dances. Rather, in Palermo and throughout Sicily, measures and provisions are also called for to combat the aging of the Forestry Corps’ staff. But even in this sense the answers are lacking: we are stuck with the decree of the former councilor Sammartino, which, following the approval of the Regional Assembly, recognized – to the same precarious workers as always – 23 more working days. It will be the usual workers who will fight the fires, since there was no competition and the only useful procedure – for 46 forestry agents, those destined for the offices – ended up with a failure due to the usual family favoritism. There is no reform and protests are not enough to trigger the spark (and shame). To unleash a surge of pride in politics, which makes it converge towards action rather than rallies and electoral campaigns. Nothing.
Despite the promises of the health councilor Giovanna Volo, the invisible, the appointment of health managers has also remained in the works. It has been discussed for a year, there have been postponements, arguments, backroom discussions, misunderstandings, cumbersome criminal records, doubts about the real skills of the protagonists; and the result is that as of 1 June 2024, health service companies continue to be placed under commissionership. None of the managers take responsibility for planning or planning between now and the next three years. We scrupulously comply with the biological standstill, which concerns the field of competitions and stabilization procedures. “Because there is an electoral campaign”. And sometimes even payments to affiliates – which would be ordinary administration – get stuck due to less than zealous people and officials.
Not to mention the looks of the case: the emergency rooms are a battlefield, the hospitals have a shortage of doctors, the staff on duty cannot handle the workload. The few healthcare workers arrive from abroad thanks to a notice issued by the Region for the recruitment of non-EU personnel. The waiting lists, regardless of what Schifani says, continue to grow and proliferate. So much so that a note is necessary in the contracts of future general managers: if you fail on the waiting lists, you are out after a year. As long as they manage to get them settled…
If the president of the Region if he dedicated himself to government with the same ambition and passion with which he dedicates himself to sub-government, many problems would have been solved long ago. Instead, practically nothing has happened in almost two years. Or rather: both Gaetano Armao and Simona Vicari were hired on the Sicilian payroll to become experts, relatively, in the sector of extra-regional issues and Energy and Transport. Toni Scilla has taken over the fishing, given that the incumbent councilor Sammartino is no longer there. And the president’s staff, led by the very trusted Marcello Caruso, has passed the first restyling. Only the Symphony has changed hands: Andrea Peria Giaconia, the former superintendent who due to manifest incompatibility put the budgets of the Politeama opera institution at risk, is no longer there, nor is the Board of Directors, which has lapsed; there is only poor Margherita Rizza, appointed commissioner (another!), who has the task of removing the rubble and carrying on the concert season. The Five Star MP Roberta Schillaci, in the Culture commission, has already presented her with the shopping list: “Stabilization of the orchestral players, hiring of new competent figures, direct confrontation with the unions and immediate appointment of a new superintendent”.
In short, they ask her to do this which no one has ever done – remember the interregnum with Balilla and Nicola Tarantino as extraordinary commissioner? – and that above all it cannot be done without the usual interference from politics. Whose only interest, as mentioned, is the occupation of the sub-government boxes and the distribution of some tasks (in the worst case a fee), leaving the rest to rot. In this long period of transition called the electoral campaign, the government – almost always absent from the chamber – did not even have the dignity to present to the Ars a proposal for debate to be developed. And SeeSicily no, and the drought no. Can we bet that in a few weeks we will start again from the provinces?
