NAPLES. The regional council of Campania will discuss on July 8 the proposed resolution for the request for a referendum to repeal the law on differentiated autonomy because “it contradicts the need for an authentic reform in an autonomist sense, altering the balance of relations between the Regions and between the Regions and the State” reads the text signed by Pd, M5S, Azione-Per, Psi, Italia Viva, Campania Libera, De Luca Presidente and the councilors of the mixed group Valeria Ciarambino, Corrado Matera and Fulvio Frezza.
If the text is approved, the president of the Campania parliament, Gennaro Oliviero, will have the mandate to communicate the decision to the assemblies of the other Regions. “We have interpreted a request that comes from many citizens of Campania and Southern Italy, as well as many associations – says Oliviero -. The law for the implementation of differentiated autonomy penalizes the South. Our protest also arises from a series of initiatives that the Government has undertaken to the detriment of the development of the South and not giving this part of the country the same opportunities as the North is intolerable. We must give concrete answers to our inhabitants, especially the weaker groups. And for this reason, differentiated autonomy must be cancelled”. Meanwhile, Emilia-Romagna is also asking for a referendum while the councils of Puglia and Tuscany are preparing to do so. And tomorrow a meeting should be held between the five centre-left-led regions that want to promote the referendum against differentiated autonomy. The governors of Sardinia, Campania, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany and Puglia should meet to take stock of the situation and arrive at a shared text.
In the meantime, the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, endorses the referendum initiative, calling it “positive considering that it is a law that significantly impacts the future of the country and the way of life of citizens”. And on the front of dissent that could spread, the mayor is clear: “For now we have a law on paper, then we have to see how it will be applied, but I believe that a fragmentation of competences is not good for anyone. In addition to the problem of gaps, an issue that certainly exists, what worries me is this excessive fragmentation of competences especially in strategic sectors and in such a complex phase from an international point of view I believe that it could be a significant problem”. And the Democratic Party parliamentarian, Valeria Valente, evaluates “positively the decision of the Regions administered by the center-left to engage in the process of proposing the abrogative referendum. Differentiated autonomy will have devastating impacts on people’s rights, penalizing the South in particular, splitting the country, threatening its cohesion and unity: it is therefore right and essential that citizens express themselves on it”.
