On one side four Regions led by the centre-left lined up against the Calderoli law, on the other three from the North in line with the Government. The clash over differentiated autonomy reaches the Council called to rule on questions of constitutionality raised by the appeals of Puglia, Tuscany, Sardinia and Campania which challenged the law in its entirety and also with reference to specific provisions. A battle involving appeals which saw alternating interventions today in the Chamber, during a lengthy hearing, by the lawyers of the four appellant Regions, the three in the north (Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto) who oppose these appeals and the Legal Advocacy of the State. The Court will meet starting tomorrow in chambers and the decision is expected in the coming weeks. The sentence will be filed in any case by mid-December, when the Supreme Court will decide on the admissibility of the abrogation referendums. The ruling of the Council could have effects on the referendum questions that the Court of Cassation itself could reformulate or declare obsolete.
For the State Attorney’s Office, representing the government, the appeals of the four regions are “inadmissible”. «It is difficult to trace a violation of the legislative competences of the appellant regions – the State lawyer underlined in the Chamber Giancarlo Caselli – And this affects the overall admissibility of all the Regions’ appeal admissions.” Massimo Luciani, lawyer for the Puglia Region, has a different opinion: “It is a law that is anything but harmless. It compromises solidarity between regions and public debt” he said. “The Lep – he added – invest all the rights and to say that it is the government choosing which rights to define the Leps for is disconcerting and sends shivers down the spine.” Andrea Perticirepresenting Tuscany: the Calderoli law creates a «financially unsustainable» system and the result «is not an efficient framework of particular autonomy aimed at better responding to the needs of the territory, but an anti-solidaristic and inefficient autonomy in guaranteeing access to essential services”.
On the opposite side of the barricades, the three northern regions which presented ad opponentndum interventions, accepted by the Court this morning. «This law does not remove guarantees but tries to reduce bureaucracy. The challenge is to make things work better,” he said Mario Bertolissi lawyer from Veneto. While Marcello Cecchetti for Piedmont he explained: «We oppose their interpretations of the Constitution, they do not convince us and they prejudice us». The governor of Veneto also intervened on the issue Luca Zaia who underlined: «It is a rule that must be defended, in the awareness that it represents the start of a new course for our country». The Apulian president Michele Emilianohowever, he says he is “confident because it is clear that it is a measure that creates very serious inequalities and puts the poorer regions in difficulty compared to the richer ones”.