A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria: Differentiated autonomy: Institutionalizing historical theft (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

On 19 June the Chamber definitively approved the law on Differentiated 
Autonomy, published in the Official Journal on 26 June, after the 
signature of the President of the Republic Mattarella, who did not 
consider making any comments on it, proving himself, as a good Palermo 
citizen, to be a " useless thing." ---- Now against law 26/6/2024 n. 8 
the Regions governed by centre-left councils are moving (Emilia Romagna, 
Tuscany, Puglia, Campania and Sardinia), oriented towards appealing to 
the Constitutional Court and promoting a repeal referendum, together 
with PD, Mov. 5 Stars, AVS and others.

But there are many discordances in this first phase, starting with the 
opposition of the Emilia Romagna Region which on the contrary was a 
supporter, precisely with its president Bonaccini, of differentiated 
autonomy, and today is maintaining that the one approved does not 
correspond to its idea of autonomy.

Even on the centre-right front there is no shortage of problems, in 
particular in Forza Italia, due to the internal branch of the two 
regional presidents of Calabria and Basilicata, currently badly blocked.

The Meloni government, which has a good electoral base in the South, has 
had to exchange the Northern League's demands for the reform of 
presidentialism, putting many of its southern representatives in 
difficulty and changing its position completely with respect to its 
aversion since 2014. The recent positions of Musumeci (minister of civil 
protection and former president of the Sicilian Region) against the 
president of Veneto Zaia, the timid discontent of Schifani, current 
Sicilian president, could (a conditional as big as a house, given the 
obsequious attitude of the classes Sicilian and southern leaders towards 
those of the North and the national governments) lead to a dissent 
(albeit very superficial) functional to those who are openly opposing 
the "split Italy" law or the "Secession of the rich" law.

In reality we are witnessing a theater of hypocrisy staged by those 
forces that have long shone for having paved the way for the most 
reactionary demands of the right. This is the case of the Democratic 
Party, creator, in its previous role as Democrats of the Left, of the 
questionable reform of Title V of the Constitution (Amato government of 
2000), confirmed with the referendum of 7 October 2001, which opened the 
chasm within which from that moment on the secessionists wallowed. That 
reform introduced new entities (municipalities, provinces, regions) with 
which the State had to share functions, resources and powers, and was 
born with the sole purpose of allowing the DS to recover electoral 
consensus in the Northern regions particularly sensitive to the 
"separatist" sirens of the League. Without saying that with that 
modification the term Southern Italy disappeared as a geographical area 
of the country characterized by socio-structural difficulties to be 
supported with equalization policies, replaced by an ambiguous 
"territories".

A bad idea to fool the right by descending onto its terrain: you strip 
yourself of that residue of difference and strengthen reactionary 
tendencies.

But the PD did not stop there: on the initiative of the president of 
Emilia Romagna (recently elected in Strasbourg) in 2018-19 an attempt 
was made to force the timing of the pre-Agreements between the State and 
the regions on the competences to be transferred to them last, asking to 
discuss 15 subjects; Lombardy and Veneto followed suit.

We can say without fear of contradiction that the center left was the 
main proponent of differentiated autonomy, laying the foundations for 
the non-return experienced in these two years of Meloni's government. 
And part of the responsibility also goes to PD secretary Schlein, given 
that the last Emilia-Romagna transitions took place under her 
vice-presidency of that region.

Not even the 5 Stars came out clean: they put differentiated autonomy as 
the main objective of the Conte 1 government's program with the League, 
and then pushed hard towards its realization, entering into secret 
negotiations with the three regions of the North, so much so that in 
2019 we were one step away from approval. Then they realized the 
nonsense they were doing and started to slow down.

The fact is that in the street demonstrations of recent weeks we have 
not witnessed any sign of self-criticism; everyone presented themselves 
as virgins, demonstrating not only their hypocrisy, but above all their 
unreliability.

And on this basis they would like to drag us into a very risky 
referendum since in the event of a flop it would provide an exceptional 
assist to the government. And one of the flops could come from the 
failure to reach the quorum, now constant in all the referendums of 
recent years, given that the electorate is rightly disgusted by this 
political class. Another flop could come from a not impossible defeat 
resulting from the consensus that the centre-right formations currently 
have. But what Viesti writes in the daily newspaper of 20/6 must be 
considered: "The referendum path is much less important, due to its 
timing and contents (even if this law were abolished, subsequent 
agreements would remain valid)".

Then there would be the chapter on the LEP (Essential Performance 
Levels), a truly squalid affair, because even in this case the 
statements of principle with which the Italian laws and the Constitution 
are full are destined to remain a mirage to be dusted off from time to 
time. much. Let's start from the definition, quoting Treccani:

LEP (Essential Performance Level) Indicators referring to the enjoyment 
of civil and social rights which must be determined and guaranteed, on 
the national territory, with the function of protecting the economic 
unity and social cohesion of the Republic, removing economic and social 
imbalances ( solidarity federalism) and provide programmatic indications 
which the Regions and local authorities must comply with, in drawing up 
their budgets and carrying out the functions attributed to them. 
Citizenship rights, the determination of which is the exclusive 
competence of the State attributed by art. 117 of the Constitution, 
essentially translate into the right of all citizens to health and 
social assistance, education, social security benefits for workers, etc.

The LEP were "invented" at the time of the Bassanini law of 1997, 
another passage in which administrative functions were conferred on 
Regions and local authorities and public administration was reformed. It 
goes without saying that they have never been implemented since then, 
and today they should be the condition for differentiated autonomy to 
take off. However, it is clear that a "levelling" of citizens' civil and 
social rights in egalitarian terms clashes with the secession of the 
rich; many hope that waiting for the definition of the Leps will keep 
the law in a bain-marie; The Northern League members do not hope so, as 
they are already moving to open negotiations between their regions and 
the State on matters that do not contemplate the identification of the 
Lep, and these trams are often secret.

In summary. There are the richer regions that want to safeguard their 
privileges; but how did they become richer? To whose detriment? From the 
point of view of internal geopolitical relations, certainly to the 
detriment of the South; from a social point of view, to the detriment of 
both the exploited southerners and locals, many of whom are the millions 
of southerners forced to abandon their underdeveloped regions; and then 
to the detriment of the environment, and so on. And they all try to 
reinforce and institutionalize this theft. A reason alone sufficient to 
say No to the filth of Calderoli and his friends.

We are for decentralization, therefore for the autonomy of the regions 
and of the territories within them; we are for federalism on both large 
and small scales, as an alternative to centralism. But we conceive 
autonomy and federalism only as egalitarian and solidarity processes 
between territories that enjoy the same opportunities. To oppose 
differentiated autonomy, great popular mobilization is needed, not the 
chatter and actions of an unreliable political class (now in opposition).

Pippo Gurrieri

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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