Last Friday 10 April, the Italian Left Assembly of Calabria took place in the regional headquarters of Sant’Eufemia-Lamezia for an evaluation of the political phase in the country and in the region, on the referendum result and on the political initiatives undertaken in the territory and on the issues to be relaunched with the Alleanza Verdi Sinistra, for an organizational remodulation in view of the many events awaiting the party in the coming months.
The new Regional Secretariat: confirmations and new entries
Meanwhile, the Regional Secretariat has been elected and on the proposal of Fernando PIGNATARO, who has been leading the Italian Left of Calabria since the January 2024 Congress, Walter NOCITO has been confirmed as Deputy Secretary and Francesco TALLARICO, Coordinator of the same Secretariat and Head of the Organisation.
Confirmed are Maria Pia FUNARO, Giulia GRANDINETTI, Coordinator of the UGS, the SI youth organization and Elisabetta TRECCOZZI. There are three new members of the Secretariat: Gian Michele BOSCO, Lawyer and President of the Catanzaro City Council, Rossella BULSEI, Teacher and activist of the NO BRIDGE Committees, Silvio PRIMERANO, Lawyer from Pizzo and leader since the birth of the Calabrian Italian Left. The Secretariat will be supported by a Regional Directorate, which will be a laboratory for political development, made up of comrades and fellow territorial leaders, experts and interested in the issues that will be the subject of the Departments’ work, without prejudice to the role of the Regional Assembly which is the maximum management and decision-making body of the party.
Mobilization against privileges and the reform of the Statute
The Assembly then developed an important debate after the report by the Secretary Fernando PIGNATARO and the communication on the modification of the regional Statute and the introduction of two new Councilors and two Undersecretaries, held by Walter NOCITO, who in addition to his political role, is also a Professor of Law at UNICAL.
Precisely on this last issue the Assembly decided to join the referendum battle launched by a Committee created ad hoc against referendum law no. 9 of 2026, committing its structures to organize banquets, gazebos, etc. in all the squares of Calabria for the collection of the 29,000 signatures required by law. This decision arose from the awareness that the choice of the minority groups in the Regional Council, with the popular initiative law proposal, is not very incisive and not very understandable by the citizens who, on the contrary, are very sensitive and disconcerted with respect to a choice of further privileges for politics and the “caste” in comparison with a dramatic economic and social situation of our territory, of a Region that is increasingly last at the European level, in which 27% of the population renounces treatment due to lack of income and the job emergency is increasingly explosive.
Criticisms of healthcare management and the end of the commissionership
The Regional Assembly also intended to stigmatize the emphasis with which President OCCHIUTO and the exponents of the Calabrian Right welcomed the Government’s decision to overcome the Commissioner of Health in Calabria. Meanwhile, as is evident, this is the counterpart of the vote in favor of the pre-agreement of the Northern Regions in the Unified State-Regions Conference.
The end of the Calabrian health commissioner, which has all the flavor of a great propaganda and electoral bluff, given that the commissioners of the 5 local companies and the three regional hospitals, which actually manage healthcare, remain. Practically nothing will be unlocked if we are still under the Recovery Plan which has and continues to strangle investments, hiring, creation of facilities, community homes and hospitals, identification of disadvantaged areas and so on. The truth is that the full powers in the hands of Occhiuto have produced zero, if not worsening the conditions of our healthcare system and almost completely eliminated the right to health in our territory.
The battles of AVS: right to health, environment and work
On the central issue of healthcare, the Green Left Alliance will continue to fight, presiding over hospitals and places where community homes are planned, to denounce the disastrous state of the Calabrian healthcare system, the favors given to private individuals, the insufficient funding which does not take into account the epidemiological situation (Calabria is the region with the highest incidence of chronically ill people), the lack of medical and healthcare personnel, the very long waiting lists which are also penalizing from an economic-financial point of view.
The decree of the state of Health Emergency in Calabria, where the Right to Health for two million Italian citizens is seriously questioned, is a necessary act and we will forcefully ask for it in Rome, in the Institutional offices together with our AVS National Secretaries.
Just as on the issues of the climate, environmental emergencies, hydrogeological instability, the infrastructural and transport system, the increasingly evident difficulties of our internal areas, the issues related to the right to work, precariousness, security, the school and training system, we will pay great attention and the Assembly has committed the management group to the organization of regional and territorial events for struggle and in-depth analysis.