In recent months, awareness has grown that differentiated regional autonomy represent an issue that will decide the future of the country. In the face of the opacity with which the negotiations between the government and the individual regions concerned are being managed, this is due to the numerous interventions by constitutionalists, economists, social scholars, trade unionists, and to the interesting analysis and in-depth meetings held in various venues. In the initial phase of reflection, an important function of boosting the debate must be recognized in the essay by Gianfranco Viesti: Towards the secession of the rich. Regional Autonomies and National Unity (The Third ed.). A volume - freely available online - which demonstrates how differentiated autonomy should not be considered a simple administrative problem or yet another dispute that characterizes the progress of the current government, but rather, a process that would involve the risk of disintegration of the unitary fabric of the country e the definitive setting aside of the southern question as a national problem.
In the last week, moreover, the reflection has been enriched with the publication of theappeal to the Head of State signed by thirty constitutionalists, where concern about the risk of marginalization of the role of Parliament in the function of protecting national interests and guarantor of the unity of the country in a context of balanced and supportive development of regionalism. Further forms of autonomy - it is argued - cannot concern the mere will expressed in an agreement between the Government and the Region concerned, having consequences on the level of the form of State and the overall structure of Italian regionalism.
In the current situation, however, it is possible that we may soon find ourselves faced with other moments in which the solution to crucial problems for the country boils down to confused bargaining agreements between the political forces of the government. This can only be avoided by ensuring a transparent decision-making process, activating an action involving the public interest and initiating a real and participatory institutional and political confrontation.
Without going into the merits of the constitutional and financial profiles, one can try to line up three types of problems to be addressed.
First of all, there is the problem that concerns the delicate relationship between autonomy, protection of national interests and guarantee of the democratic foundations of equal rights: the essential crux of respect for the functions of the Parliament relating to the exercise of the powers of direction and examination (with the possibility of amendments) of the regional proposals. How and when will Parliament be involved? This is a theme that deserves all the attention of the political forces, also to favor a systemic relaunch of regionalism in Italy. Many objective elements would push in this direction: the differentiated impact of the economic crisis on the territories; the repercussions of the new wave of technological progress on the structures of the economy and society; sustainability issues and the new value of environmental variables; the need to redistribute income in the face of growing social and territorial disparities.
A second node of problems concerns the theme of financial coverage corresponding to the requests for autonomy in question. Here it is not known whether the coverage, as those concerned say, has a zero balance, whether it will be charged to general taxation, whether it will be paid for by the poorest regions. In the meantime, the unconstitutionality of the practice of residual taxation seems to have been recognised, which links the exercise of autonomy to the amount of tax revenue from the territory and makes the provision of various services, including essential ones such as education and health, depend on the concentration of individual wealth created on the territory itself. But that's not enough. It cannot be ignored that in order to correctly quantify the resources it is necessary to activate the prescribed pre-determination of the standard requirements and the Essential Performance Level (LEP); unfortunately steps that have not yet been tackled in the relevant institutional settings and which do not require short times. How to proceed, then? How can we avoid the risk of reducing the unifying power of the State, of accentuating the differences of citizenship, of altering the balance of public finances, of creating difficulties in the formation of the State budget in its dimension and in its components?
A third order of problems is related to the meaning that regional autonomy would assume for the type and number of skills required. Just to give a non-complete example: the Veneto Region "...wants to legislate on the subject of environmental protection, protection and enhancement of cultural heritage, territorial governance, scientific and technological research and support for innovation, placement and services for employment, on international relations and with the European Union (…) claims the transfer to the regional state property of national roads and their planning, execution and maintenance, (…) the authorization functions relating to the construction and operation of electricity production plants, power lines, gas pipelines, and oil pipelines…” (Viesti, p. 43). It is clear that we are not talking about autonomy here, but about total self-government. The unity of setting up and managing national economic policy and governing the labor market is broken, the planning of investments in timing and execution is compromised, the need for territorial and sectoral interdependence is lost. In the illusion of being able to insert themselves, not as an articulated system, in the contemporary world economy built on global value chains.
The design underlying differentiated regional autonomy it is not an acceptable prospect. But it cannot be countered by claiming the maintenance of the status quo, which is questionable in many respects. Instead, you have to work for one revival of efficient and democratic regionalism, and not to leave young people with a future based on a culture of division.
