Cosenza, unique city, Occhiuto: “The referendum has been politicized too much. We must respect the data”

«We must respect the referendum data, the Regional Council will decide what to do». Thus the president of the Calabria Region, Roberto Occhiutocommented on the outcome of the consultative referendum for the merger into a single city of Municipalities of Cosenza, Rende and Castroliberoa referendum which was held last Sunday and which saw the «No» prevail. «I never commented, neither before nor during the electoral campaign, because – underlined Occhiuto – I thought it was right that this matter was handed over to the Regional Council which made a law and which found an agreement for the date of the referendum. Clearly I voted yes, I would have hoped there could be a single city. For some time – the President of the Region recalled – I have been saying that more than 400 municipalities in Calabria are too many and that we need to work on a reform of the institutional architecture. Perhaps he was wrong to politicize the referendum too much, citizens had to be left free to express themselves without making it a partisan issue. I tried to do this. As you know, I communicate a lot with social media: you haven’t seen any post, any Instagram story about the referendum, even though I actually voted yes and would have been happy if there had been a union of the three Municipalities. Now – concluded Occhiuto – we must respect the referendum data, the Regional Council will decide what to do”.