In response to the jubilation expressed in the Chamber by Northern League parliamentarians when faced with the Chamber’s green light for differentiated autonomy, some Southern regions have taken to the field, squeezed into a Southern ‘front’ which risks opening up even among the majority. Having become law with the post-session vote, the Calderoli bill will now land on the desk of the President of the Republic for the usual scrutiny before being published in the Official Journal and Mattarella, who certainly does not let himself be pulled by the jacket by any of the parties involved , will analyze the provision in depth.
While the process continues, however, the political debate does not subside. “It seems to me that due to the way in which this reform was approved, at night and in a hurry, it is increasingly a flag to be given to a political force”, declared Roberto Occhiuto, Italian governor of Calabria, thus pulling the League is at stake, turning up the volume on the ‘southern voice’ within the majority and raising doubts – a few days before the run-offs – also on the possible electoral boomerang for the centre-right. And if on the one hand the centre-right defends the reform together with the government, the oppositions are compact and ready to do battle outside the Palace, launching the referendum to repeal the “splitting Italy law” which “increases inequalities between territories”.
The political debate
The M5s goes further and addresses Sergio Mattarella directly, asking with the group leaders in the Senate and the Chamber – Stefano Patuanelli and Francesco Silvestri – the President of the Republic to postpone the reform to the Chambers. Meanwhile, in the blue party the debate on the Calderoli bill remains heated. “I do not share all this concern of President Occhiuto” specifies the president of the Sicilian Region, Renato Schifani, as well as president of the National Council of FI, underlining that “the text has been significantly improved with some corrective measures also thanks to FI”. The group leader at Palazzo Madama di FI, Maurizio Gasparri, is also on the same line. “In the Senate – he underlines – Forza Italia has made a decisive contribution to improving the law on Autonomy and introducing guarantee mechanisms for the South. I have clarified this in recent days and Senator Mario Occhiuto rightly reiterates it, which he did in the Chamber to on behalf of the Forza Italia Senate group the declaration of vote in favor of the measure, after having made an essential contribution to its improvement”. The text voted after the river session brings together the opposition which, in addition to the repeal referendum, relaunches an EU document. “The European Union’s research office – claims Angelo Bonelli of Avs – has rejected Differentiated Autonomy, confirming what we have always maintained: this reform will not only increase social inequalities, but will also entail higher costs for the public sector compared to the private one. It is unacceptable that the Meloni government, in a real bargain with Salvini, has sold out Southern Italy in exchange for the premiership.” Now that autonomy is law, the Northern regions, administered by the centre-right, led by Veneto and Lombardy, are pushing to acquire the new powers that until now the Constitution assigned to the State.
