Just one week before important regional elections that will determine who will control territories as important as Lombardy or Lazio, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has granted a great gift to the League, the party with which she governs in coalition both in the Executive as in many regions of the country. Last week, the Italian Council of Ministers approved a bill that constitutes the first stone for a reform of the territorial model based on granting greater autonomy to the regions that request it to the detriment of central power, a historical demand of the old League North that has already divided the country because it has not been liked by some southern governors or by the opposition of the Democratic Party (PD) and the 5 Star Movement (M5E).
The reform of Meloni, or rather, of his Minister of Regional Affairs, the league member Roberto Calderoli, consists of the so-called differentiated autonomy, or “a la carte federalism”, as some media have considered. It is about the possibility for each region to ask the State for new powers within a package of 23 indicated subjects, such as education, health, the administration of cultural assets, foreign trade or civil ports and airports. To avoid that a citizen of a poorer region has worse services than in richer ones, essential levels of provision (LEP, for its acronym in Italian) are foreseen, which the State must guarantee. One of the important debates that will open from now on is how to define these essential levels of provision and, above all, how they are going to be financed.
“With the bill on autonomy we want to build a more united, stronger and more cohesive Italy. The Government is setting in motion a path to overcome the differences that exist today between territories and guarantee to all citizens, and in all parts of Italy, the same rights and the same level of services”, declared the premier.
It is not a simple operation. Now the reform must first go through the Unified Conference of the State and the Regions, then it will return to the Government and finally it will face the examination of the parliamentary chambers. Only then will the regions that wish to do so – many of them the wealthy northern territories governed by the right – be able to apply for these powers. But it does not require a constitutional reform, because the approved decree actually implements articles 116 and 117 of the Italian Constitution, where it is written that new forms of autonomy can be granted “at the initiative of the region concerned.” It was something achieved through a constitutional reform of the year 2001, approved with a referendum thanks to an initiative of the progressive government of the time, led by Giuliano Amato. It is a debate that goes back a long way, and in 2017, the regions of Lombardy and Veneto (through a consultative referendum) and Emilia-Romagna requested that this procedure be activated to have more powers, but so far there had been no further progress. .
The measure has been highly celebrated by the members of the League, a party that until not many years ago called for the independence of Padania. Beginning with Minister Calderoli, who called the day “historic” and assured that “Italy is a train that can circulate if there are regions that act as a driving force and others that increase their own speed, with a view to cohesion.” Party leader Matteo Salvini gains air and can protect his leadership after he was questioned over his poor performance in the September elections. However, in the opposition they consider that it is only a gesture to favor the victory of league player Attilio Fontana in Lombardy next Sunday. “Meloni is selling the unity of Italy because of the regional elections,” said Giuseppe Conte, leader of the M5E. The governor of Apulia, Michele Emiliano (PD), thinks the same, who believes that it is a way of not making the League look bad in the region where it built its history. Elly Schlein, candidate to lead the PD, believes that it is “a slap in the face to the south of the country.”
