The meeting in recent days between the mayors of Alghero and Sassari with the president of the Region, who addressed, among others, the issue of the establishment of the metropolitan city of Sassari, is good news. For two reasons.
The first is that there was a meeting between the two mayors and the president which marks, even visually, a change of direction compared to the total closure that the previous president of the Region, Solinas, always had towards our territory and its institutional representatives.
There were numerous meeting requests from the mayors of the metropolitan network and TIPSS, the table of institutions and social partners of the north-west of Sardinia, to the president, all of which were regularly ignored, just as the documents sent to the president with concrete programmatic and institutional reorganization proposals.
Therefore, the change in attitude of the highest regional office towards the institutions of our territory marks an important reversal of direction. It means a rediscovered spirit of loyal and respectful collaboration without which it becomes difficult for the territories to plan their future and for the Region to lead a balanced and shared development of the entire island.
The second reason is having addressed the essential issue of the institutional reorganization of the territories and, for us, that of the institution of the metropolitan city of Sassari. The lack of provinces, or rather, of their democratic representation that only the popular vote can confer, and for the metropolitan network the lack of constitutional dignity that has limited it to being a simple union of municipalities with scarce resources and no real function, has been for too many years one of the elements, perhaps the most important, that slow down a balanced and shared territorial development.
Certainly one meeting is not enough to resolve such a complex problem, but having addressed it promptly and in the right way finally gives a glimpse of a concrete possibility of a solution. Likewise, the president and the mayors have undertaken, with the meeting, a binding public commitment which will soon be filled with content, with timing and formal steps that must be implemented.
As a mayor who, despite the numerous requests made with the other mayors, has experienced and suffered a phase of total absence of relations with the Presidency of the Region, completely closed in his rooms and contrary to any confrontation, even simply formal, this start on a such an important topic appears positive and worthy of being accompanied by everyone, majorities and oppositions, overcoming sterile partisan contrasts and working together to arrive, with a united spirit and in the general interest, at the new institutional design of the territories in the most shared way possible.
The future of Sardinia and of our territory in particular is linked to this fundamental step towards which it is necessary that we all make a positive and constructive contribution.
Mario Conoci, 30 June 2024
