Two measures and a clear signal. The Occhiuto-Calderoli idyll has finally broken. Gone are the days when the Calabrian governor welcomed the Northern League minister for regional affairs with open arms to the Citadel to present the reform of differentiated autonomy. The present, now, tells of a relationship that lives on the edge of (mutual) distrust and unequivocal messages. Like those launched by Palazzo Chigi in recent days: first the decision to resist in court against the Region on a dispute regarding the management of water, then the government’s choice to challenge the law on the transformation of employment relationships for hydraulic supervisors before the Constitutional Court.
The clash takes on a political connotation because it comes precisely at the moment in which the Calabrian Forza Italia president is counted among the most critical in the center-right on the reform designed by Calderoli himself. And there are those who do not fail to underline the paradox of a minister of differentiated autonomy who contests the Regional Council of Calabria precisely on the competing legislation.
In fact, the reasons supporting the decision include the appropriation by the Citadel of competences that belong – according to the Council of Ministers – to the State. In essence, the government representative who more than anyone would like to transfer powers to the Regions, blocks Calabria, which is committed to returning to a sector of “its” competence.
There is enough to dust off one of Andreotti’s maxims (“it is a sin to think badly, but you get it right”) in this August full of tensions on the Rome-Catanzaro axis. With political battles transferred to the institutional level and with a (nearby) future full of uncertainties, especially in terms of relations with allies. And if the axis with Fratelli d’Italia – cemented by a good personal relationship between Occhiuto and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – does not appear to be in question, the opposite can be said about relations with the League. Differentiated autonomy is certainly the main point of friction between the parties, but not only that. Occhiuto has so far been able to count on the loyalty of the President of the Regional Council, Filippo Mancuso, and is waiting for concrete signals from Minister Matteo Salvini on the subject of infrastructure.
After having obtained what he asked for the modernization of the Ionian State Road 106, the governor now awaits concrete measures on the Salerno-Reggio high-speed railway and on the restyling of the A2 motorway.