“The text of the bill on differentiated autonomy approved by the Chamber has certainly improved – thanks above all to the work of the Forza Italia ministers and the national secretary, Antonio Tajani – compared to the one proposed months ago by Minister Calderoli.
For the most important matters, agreements between the State and the Regions cannot be ratified without first having quantified and financed the essential levels of performance.
But precisely for this reason, the method used to vote in forced stages – rejecting possible further improvements – for this measure is difficult to understand: in doing so the bill seemed like a flag of a single political force, in a climate that represented this rule as divisive in Parliament and in the country.
I don’t know if the minimal electoral advantages that the centre-right will have in the North, where presumably the citizens before autonomy would have preferred to have less taxes and less bureaucracy, will compensate for the opposition and concerns that the centre-right voters have in the South.
This rule needed to be further explored and the discussion had to take place in a calm manner: we would thus have had the opportunity to explain it better in the southern regions.
I understand the reasons of the Calabrian deputies of Forza Italia – Francesco Cannizzaro, Giuseppe Mangialavori and Giovanni Arruzzolo – who decided not to vote for this law. It was their choice, which I shared.
I fear that the national center-right has made a mistake, which it will soon realize.”
Thus Roberto Occhiuto, president of the Calabria Region and deputy national secretary of Forza Italia.
