«This law, if it were to pass as it was approved in the Senate, appears to be quite a mess. While we try to move towards the centralization of powers to strengthen the powers of Europe, in Italy we think well of moving towards individualism”. As, Daniela Rotella, president of Italia Viva for the province of Catanzaro, introduced the public meeting promoted by the party Matteo Renzi to discuss the prospects of differentiated autonomy. At the speakers' table, set up in the Concert Hall of the Municipality of Catanzaro, the mayor of the regional capital, Nicola Fioritaand its Cosenza counterpart, Franz Caruso. Together with them, Valerio Donatoprofessor of private law at the “Magna Graecia” University of Catanzaro, Nunzia Paeseregional president of Italia Viva, and Massimiliano Stellato, regional councilor and president of Italia Viva Puglia, and above all Dafne Musolinosenator of Italia Viva and member of the Constitutional Affairs Commission.
«This battle against differentiated autonomy concerns everyone – said Fiorita in his greeting speech to the audience -. It is not a battle of the South, but it is a battle of Italy. We mayors of the South were among the first and most tenacious in warning public opinion about how harmful this reform was. In these latitudes, I would say that no one wants differentiated autonomy. If the criterion that everyone recognizes is that of overcoming historical expenditure, that of creating a more current and fair model, there was no need for differentiated autonomy to create the Lep”. In line with those of Fiorita, the words of the mayor of Cosenza: «Personally, I am against this reform tout-court: it is harmful especially for the South, we already we live in de facto differentiated autonomy, there is already a substantial difference between the South and the rest of the country. I am thinking of healthcare, for example, which shows us how Italy cannot be considered a unitary country. It is not a battle of the South against the North or of the left against the right, but rather it is in defense of the unity of the country against the construction of 20 small states.”