«It is a historic day for Calabria, for the workers of the Mercure plant and for all the communities that revolve around that production garrison. After months of legal, political and institutional battles, the Constitutional Court has restored the truth: that regional rule that imposed the closure of the plant was unconstitutional. Today wins work, legality, common sense ».
He writes it in a note Giuseppe GrazianoRegional Councilor and President of Action Calabria, who from the first day has deployed to defend the workers involved in the dispute and the future of the biomass plant of the Mercure Valley, threatened by a regional law (the CD reads Laghi) which imposed the forced reduction in power under 10 MW, effectively determining its closure. «We are talking – he underlines – of an employment chain in the forest of over 1,500 workers, and therefore families, who would otherwise have remained without work. That’s why today’s sentence assumes an exceptional and extraordinary value ».
“It was not conceivable – continues Graziano – that hundreds of jobs could be sent to smoke for a wrong rule and delete a production experience that represents an example of sustainable and circular economy in the heart of the Pollino Park. We have always said that that law, in addition to being a masked “provision”, was unreasonable, retroactive and written only to hit a specific system. The Consulta gave us fully right ».
“The Court – underlines the president of Action Calabria – recognized The constitutional illegitimacy of the regional law, both in the part in which it prohibited the plant a priori, and for having violated the principles of legitimate custody and business freedom. It is a sentence that goes beyond the individual case: it is an embankment to regulatory populism and a reference to the seriousness of regional legislation. No law can overwhelm the fundamental rights of citizens without an objective and proportionate reason ».
Graziano closes with a thought to the workers: «My first thought goes to them. They resisted, with dignity and determination, even when the situation seemed compromised. Today their struggle has become jurisprudence. It is a collective victory, which teaches us that politics only makes sense when putting at the service of people, not ideologies. Today we bring home an important, historical result. But from tomorrow we continue to work, with even more strength, to guarantee future, stability and development to this territory ».