«The Region recognizes only 7.5 million of the 12.9 million euros defined by an executive sentence of the Court of Catanzaro». This is the complaint from Giuseppe Falcomatà, regional councilor of the Democratic Party, on the sidelines of the meeting of the II Budget and Economic Planning Commission dedicated to budget adjustment. The matter, Falcomatà explains in a note, concerns the transfer of personnel for the exercise of functions previously delegated. The councilor contests the sums recognized to the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria during the examination of the amendments to the provision which will be brought to the next meeting of the Regional Council.
The dispute over resources for the Reggio area
«Once again this regional majority proves itself to be an open enemy of the Reggio community», states Falcomatà, according to whom failure to recognize the entire sum could result in further reductions in works and services for citizens. «It had been clear for some time that Occhiuto’s majority were enemies of Reggio. Just think of the tragicomic story of the functions, which for many years have been hostage to a political retaliation that has caused multi-million-dollar damages to the Reggio area”, claims the councilor. «Today we are seeing not only the damage but also the insult, with a further 5 million that the Region would like to take away from the Reggio area despite the executive sentence of the Court», he adds.
The appeal to the metropolitan city: «Enforce your rights»
Falcomatà also calls into question the metropolitan city of Reggio Calabria, which he defines as “of the same political nature as the Region”: “Will it assert the interests of the people of Reggio Calabria, asking for recognition of the entire debt sanctioned by the Court, or will party reasons prevail, causing damage to its own finances and therefore taking away resources that could be allocated to the territory?”.
«For our part – he concludes – we will firmly oppose this umpteenth shameful attempted robbery, disguised in the folds of this budget adjustment. The Region recognizes the debts owed to the people of Reggio and the Metropolitan City asserts its right to have the sums owed to it fully recognised.”