The latest version of the bill, which is already splitting parties and yellow coalitions of means and countermeasures to overcome imbalances and gaps, from schools to transportation, the League seeks to “sweeten the pill” but without mandatory commitments on very delicate infrastructure fronts. and basic performance levels. Which are mentioned, but without obligations, restrictions and resources. In essence, this is mixed with already allocated funds.
Behind the autonomy bill, which is already leading to a split in parties and coalitions, is also revealed mockery: I 4.6 billion funds offered by the Central-South League as a “handout” to transfer what they actually were already provided for by the NDP, and they are all still there, since not a single euro has been spent so far. This is reported by today’s edition of Il Messaggero, and the opposition indicates that they will climb the “barricades”. In the third and final draft, presented by Minister Calderoli and expected in the next few weeks in the Council of Ministers, there are two passages identified as “smoky”, and it was they who were to guarantee all Italians that, regardless of the region in which basic performance levels (Lep) would remain the same and that the reform would also guarantee the so-called “equalization”, i.e. Both, reformulated in the last edition, would be a kind of mockery of the Roman newspaper, “sweetening the pill” in the face of a completely different reality the one that goes over in an unreasonable reading of the article on the law of the League of the North. .
On the second front, alignment, there was a new article number 10 titled “Measures to equalize and promote economic development, cohesion and social solidarity”. What reads like this is no more and no less than what was read in texts about federalism in order to dispel the suspicion, almost certainty, that reform is only a way keep in the north more resources at the expense of the South, indicating that the state had to allocate money to cover any infrastructure gaps. And here’s the thing: what resources? Project does not find new but it draws from the Pnrr fund, from the cohesion funds and from the already planned and never activated infrastructure fund. Not one euro more than the resources that already belong to the South and often run out in the northern regions. After all, there is already an equalization fund, it was created two years ago and financed by 4.6 billion, but they still exist, because there is no executive decree. Thus, the reform, on the one hand, “re-sells” itself funds already allocatedi, on the other hand, “leans” towards the cause of differentiated autonomy, which is not exactly what Italy asked Europe to finance.
All this, remember Messengertakes place in a context where differentiated autonomy already exists, but in reverse order. The regions of the North have a greater ability to receive funds than the regions of the South, which need them like bread, as evidenced by the fact that the journey from Rome to Milan takes less than three hours, but the same 500 km from Rome to Lecce need seven if all is well. A recent example is taken from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan in the Urban Revitalization chapter. The tenders included an objective and hard-to-obtain distribution criterion: social insecurity. In short, the criterion was that more money should go where unemployment, school dropout, poverty rates, etc. are higher. And indeed, most of the resources went to the municipalities of the Center and South, but the North rebelled, which succeeded almost immediately to receive “compensation” in the amount of 900 million to restore the balance of appropriations.
There is a suspicion here that the reform, without providing for various means, eventually changes the situation in favor of the northern regions, which have an advantage in receiving them, given that the only real “dowry” of the law comes down to the different “management of already existing funds.
Another topic full of critical questions is i services to citizens through me Key Performance Levels (P). They’ve been talked about for decades, but they don’t exist. The reform, as it is now written, is limited to defining them, but does not undertake how to guarantee their equality between different regions of the country. It does not allocate funds to fill any gaps, as might happen in training or for construction of schools. The text actually refers to future decisions (laws on the budget, etc.) and for the southern regions it is a bit like signing in the dark, on trust. Thus, autonomy in the Northern League sauce, as it appears in the latest draft, looks like a “house of cards”.
Source: II Fatto Quotidiano