The majority decides not to discuss it (at least for now), the minority goes berserk and yet another brawl breaks out over differentiated autonomy. Not even the presence of a delegation of Calabrian mayors outside Palazzo Campanella was enough to convince the Council to discuss the proposal to call an abrogative referendum put forward by the Democratic Party, the Five Star Movement and a mixed group. No way: yesterday the first commission postponed everything, raising – this time in unison – a wall that would seem insurmountable. And this on the very day in which the collection of signatures at a national level reaches 500,000 and the promoters are exulting (“Adherences also from centre-right voters”), confirming the objective of one million by September.
The debate in the commission, with the unprecedented presence of a delegation of mayors, largely revolved around the issue of law. For the center-right majority, in essence, the referendum would not stand up. It is useless, at this point, even to discuss it. And in any case, “the modification of the fifth title of the Constitution – the Prime Minister pointed out, Philip Mancusoof the League – is the work of the left, therefore today’s heroic attitude is useless”.
Antonello Talerico (Forza Italia) was peremptory: “As a jurist – we read in the minutes of the meeting – I believe that the referendum is clearly inadmissible, considering that it must have a law as a reference, and cannot be abrogation of ordinary laws implementing constitutional norms. Instead, we must focus on the financial allocations of the Lep and the determination of the criteria”. The League is on the same line. Above all, President Mancuso himself: “Several jurists have glimpsed elements of unconstitutionality and the referendum proposal will be rejected”. Nonetheless, Mancuso added, on the merits “the Regional Council expressed itself with various orders of the day and voted on a document which states that the reform is a great opportunity under certain conditions: differentiated autonomy with the financing of the Lep will have to fill the gap that currently exists in healthcare and the example can be transferred to all matters”. Giuseppe Mattiani and Giuseppe Gelardi, also from the League, supported the idea: “No catastrophe announced, the joint commission will be a guarantee of fairness. The referendum proposal has no future”, said the latter. For Fratelli d’Italia, the president of the commission Luciana De Francesco made her voice heard, “astonished by the double standards of the PD that contests the normal procedure of the proposal under discussion, considering that it is appropriate to allow involvement with the scheduling in the chamber for the technical-legal analysis”.