The brawl in the Chamber during the examination of differentiated autonomy “is the demonstration that at this moment there is not the serenity necessary to discuss this reform”. The president of the Calabria Region Roberto Occhiuto (FI) stated this in an interview with the ‘Corriere della Sera’, adding: “They gave a sharp acceleration to the law. So Italians experience it as highly divisive”. “The text approved by the Senate is a good text, but it must be improved”, he continues. Occhiuto underlines that according to Antonio Tajani, the secretary of Forza Italia, “it is also essential that the law supports the regions of the South” and this means that “we need to review the issue which concerns precisely the matters where the Lep are not foreseen”.
“It is an aspect that in Calabria in the regional council was raised by everyone, even by the League”, adds Occhiuto explaining that “the text says that for the matters where the Lep are foreseen, before making an agreement, it is necessary to define them and finance them, but the money isn’t there yet.” However, this is not the case for matters where the Leps are not present: “No, and this is the problem. Because an instant after the agreement, some regions could ask to stipulate agreements to be autonomous on some matters. Foreign trade, for example example. What would happen for farmers in Campania and Calabria who export their goods?”.
“Abroad they could discover that the country is divided in half”, continues Occhiuto, adding that “preliminary to the agreement there must be an evaluation of the impact of the agreement itself”. “The autonomy that I am thinking of is a law that gives the regions the possibility of doing more without this damaging the rights of citizens of other regions”, continues the governor, explaining that the law “must be discussed. I don’t want to put doubt the commitments made with the government on the three reforms must not be flags of the individual political forces”. “On the justice reform, which is the one that Forza Italia cares about most, we have not placed any ultimatum – he concludes – It would be appropriate for this to happen for other reforms too”.
