He says he is in the “Zen phase”, but teases the minister Gennaro Sangiuliano: “If someone from the national government comes to make an appearance or someone follows the path of Galileo Galilei, know that the national government has not allocated a single euro”. Above all, he doesn’t want to be seen as a central player, Vincenzo De Luca. It is the Calderoli law just passed by Parliament that he fought against, not the principle of Autonomy. A notable distinction. «Let’s not get dragged into ideologies, on autonomy if they approve three amendments for the Campania Region it’s fine» says the governor of Campania.
«Campania – said De Luca – has been at the head of the battle against autonomy but we have made it clear that our battle is on two fronts, against differentiated autonomy because it splits Italy, but also against the bureaucratic centralism of Rome and the ministries. There are two battles to be fought, and we must be careful not to give the feeling that we want to keep the situation as it is, a country that dies in a bureaucratic swamp that needs to be drained is no good. To my friends from the North I say: if we really want to be intellectually honest, if the things you say have content, that you don’t want to penalize the South, we approve three amendments.
De Luca refers to two subjects in particular that would create a greater imbalance: Healthcare and School. «A first with which we establish for healthcare and public schools that all Italian citizens, from Piedmont to Sicily, must have the same resources. We approve a second amendment with which we establish that the number of doctors, nurses and health workers, which must be the same for all regions in proportion to the inhabitants. And also that the Regions, all of them, starting with those that ask for differentiated autonomy, are prohibited from making regional supplementary contracts for healthcare and schools.”
On the third amendment, De Luca underlines: «If a regional contract is put on the table that can double or triple doctors’ salaries, it is clear that we are condemning healthcare in the South to death. We will have a river of young people leaving for the North. Three amendments are enough. Same resources per capita for healthcare, same percentage number of employees in public healthcare, ban on making regional supplementary contracts. If we approve them we can move forward.”
On the law approved in recent days, De Luca explains: «As soon as it is published, we will ask to participate in the discussion with the Government on the Region’s line which is the opposite of differentiated autonomy, which I have defined as the counter-risorgimento. We will also ask for the attribution to the Region of the powers needed to avoid unnecessary bureaucratic steps. The approval of landscape plans, the regulations on energy systems, work in ports, given that today to do dredging in a port we have to wait 7 years for authorizations from the ministries. We can also do these actions tomorrow morning, in agreement with the Northern Regions, to modernize Italy, but no to differentiated autonomy, for any reason.”
As for the battle for the release of FSC funds waged against the government, he adds, answering the question whether he would shake hands with Giorgia Meloni: «I also shake hands with the devil. Just sign the cohesion agreement and put us in a position to work». And he ends: «I have reached the point that I don’t even ask for an apology for the insult received on February 16, which the world of information did not notice. The only real, public insult was that. I’m ready to shake hands, hug everyone. Obviously then in private…”.
