On the morning of Friday 22 March the document was deposited at the offices of the Calabrian Regional Council bill that aims to strengthen the role of the municipalities involved in a merger project.
“This proposal, in fact, provides that any referendum must be considered valid only if the “yes” vote wins in each municipality involved, exceeding the cumulative quorum. This proposal to amend the regional law, detailed above”, state the signatories of the proposal, “as well as being shared and promoted by the citizen committees of Cosenza, Rende and Castrolibero and by the national association for mergers FCCN, it is supported by the mayors and municipal administrations of Cosenza and Castrolibero, as stated and reiterated during the press conference of last March 11. This proposed amendment rightfully enters among the main initiatives that, as the Citizens' Committee of Rende, we have undertaken in recent months. Initiatives that want to shout out opposition to a plan of power, wicked, totally anti-democratic, with methods worthy of the regimes of yesterday and today.The territories are mortified, the municipal administrations thus subverted or canceled are bypassed and, above all, the choices of the citizens are ignored. It is precisely because of these shortcomings that the proposal to amend regional law 13/1983 comes from the bottom, and therefore from the citizens of the three municipalities involved. It is the citizens who must be at the center of the future choices of their territories, in this case neither aware nor protagonists. No one can be allowed to achieve a partisan political objective in contempt of the fundamental values of democracy and the self-determination of peoples, an attempt made by the council and the centre-right regional council majority and desired by the Occhiuto family and their associates. After the deafening silence and not having been able to express our thoughts in institutional settings and also offer our contribution, after understanding the real reasons for this merger proposal which cannot in any way be defined as a project, the time has come to say the truth and give political responsibilities to those who want this fusion across the board. Starting with the regional minority parties and movements, which declare their willingness to engage in dialogue instead of opposing with all their might the desire to suppress, with a coup, the municipalities of Cosenza, Rende and Castrolibero from the geographical, political and administrative map of the Calabria region.
To the right of the Occhiutos and their associates we say “no”: we will never allow the municipalities of Calabria to be canceled according to political convenience with an act of institutional piracy, today Cosenza, Rende and Castrolibero, tomorrow any other that is ” liking”. We will never allow institutional drift and the beginning of a modern season of centralism on a regional basis.
For all this, we ask that the trade union, social and entrepreneurial forces, the world of associations, the academic and school world, all the subjects involved in the future destiny of our territories, join the mayors, the Committees of the no to the proposal of merger law and, above all, to the citizens of the three municipalities to win the battle of freedom of choice against those who believe they are the new masters of Calabria”.
The promoters Francesca Bozzo, Mario Bozzo, Fabio Liparoti and Massimo Scarpelli representing the three municipalities have deposited the prototype card and 350 cards with the collection of signatures of the citizens who signed the initiative relating to the proposed law “Amendments to the Regional Law 5 April 1983, n. 13 – Popular initiative law pursuant to the Regional Law of Calabria n.13 of 5 April 1983”.
“We are starting a new battle of legality, together with all Calabrian citizens, we will collect signatures to change the regional law. No longer a consultative referendum, but a binding one municipality by municipality”, concluded the signatories.