Differentiated autonomy risks turning into a tombstone on the hopes of recovery of Calabria and the entire South. Warm blood had begun to flow again under the cracked skin of this earth. A blood that was carried into that new world filled with trust by public funds which, in 2023, pushed the south to grow (+1.3%) faster than the rest of the country (+0.9%). An awakening that was also appreciated in Calabria with a +1.2% change in real gross domestic product. A wealth that flowed mainly from Construction (+7.4%) and the Tertiary sector (+1.7%). Vitality diagrams that Svimez, the association for the development of the South, has defined in its detailed report which highlights the greatest difficulties in the Centre-North. But the sky of this land has been colored with livid shadows since the dark evil of differentiated autonomy insinuated itself into the high and shining confidence rediscovered by Calabria and the South. A law that has already exasperated that sense of loneliness which now creates despair among people who fear finding themselves crushed under the weight of territorial inequalities.
Luca Bianchi is the general director of Svimez and as an economist he traces the decline curve inspired by devolution which risks extinguishing those faint murmurs of recovery that were being perceived in the South and in Calabria in particular, after the years of the crisis. Differentiated autonomy will open up enormous gaps of solitude in this land, with swarms of humanity who, even more than today, will be forced to flee, in search of certainties and essential services that can no longer be guaranteed here. «The law, which has just been voted on by Montecitorio, is a project that translates into a definitive renunciation by the country of the objective of reducing the gaps between citizens. For a region like Calabria it becomes a prospect of progressive disinvestments by the State. Therefore, the effect produced is doubly negative because with the decline of the objective of a policy without territorial differences desired by the Constitution (same level of services guaranteed in all areas of the country) we are going to intervene in a moment of favorable economic situation. A recovery path achieved through post-covid expansionary dynamics supported by public resources, from the Pnrr to the cohesion funds. A scenario that demonstrates how companies in Calabria can grow on a par with those in the Northern regions as long as there is state or community investment. But autonomy, ultimately, is the opposite of the Pnrr, it is the antithesis of an inclusive policy that tries to reduce gaps. In essence, this federalism represents the crystallization of differences with the growth of inequalities.”
