The appointment with December 4, the date of the constitutional referendum, is rapidly approaching. The confrontation between those in favor and against the measure becomes increasingly bitter. The front of the opponents, fueled by an impromptu convergence between very varied forces, to keep faith with the polls, seems destined to gather support above all in southern Italy.
It is true that the public opinion's reliability of this kind of thermometer has received a rather severe blow after the surprise victory, especially for pollsters, of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections. And it is equally true that a still very high share of undecided voters in the referendum is reported.
But exponents of southern politics are making a full effort in the battle for the "no" - from Massimo D'Alema to Ciriaco De Mita and Rino Formica - who, in the past, have held leading roles; and in the same direction, figures are operating who, more recently, have conquered, with widespread consensus, important positions in the South: from Michele Emiliano, president of the Puglia region to the mayor of Naples, Luigi De Magistris. Not to mention Beppe Grillo who, after an unforgettable swimming performance, achieved a conspicuous result at the last Sicilian regional championships.
It is therefore plausible to assume that the "no" front, whether it prevails or not, will in any case gain a substantial share of support in the South. Faced with such a scenario, it becomes legitimate to ask: what meaning should be given to all these "no"s? And then: is the affirmation of "no" or "yes" more useful in the South? Observes Franco Marini, former President of the Senate with a past as union leader: "The South, it is certainly not a mystery, has been in tension for some time: but mainly for economic and social reasons".
So it is easy to see behind those "no" the sum of contradictory expectations and proposals and not the expression of a coherent alternative design to the constitutional reform project. In short, a poorly thought out refusal in which nostalgia for the times of easy public spending and a policy inclined to welfare and "rain" interventions mixes with the inconclusive rebelliousness of certain local leaderships.
On the other hand, southern Italy today – the latest Svimez report has just confirmed it – has a productive engine that runs too slowly. To give it more grit, notes Svimez, an "overall perspective is needed which should put the interests of the South into a system with those of the whole country".
To make it concrete, it would seem useful to aim, on the one hand, at the completion of the Masterplan and the Pacts for the South launched by the Government and, on the other, to make the role of the Southern Regions more incisive. But the latter objective would certainly become more guaranteed by the launch of the constitutional reform than by its rejection.
The constitutionalist Andrea Morrone observes: “With the revision of Title V of the Constitution carried out in 2001, the intention was to arrive at a Republic of autonomies. Autonomies have instead been produced without a Republic”.
The reform law of last April corrects this negative result essentially through two instruments: by making the competences of the Regions better defined in a framework of national unity; giving a new appearance to the Senate, called to become a place where the voice of regional and local institutions can be stronger, because it is expressed in an open venue, compared to the one that today resounds in the closed rooms of the State-Regions conference.
It is a demanding challenge for everyone, but especially for the South which will thus be able to find more appropriate venues to push the country to fight against the economic and social divide which weighs heavily between its various areas. This assigns a greater responsibility to the political and managerial class that the South expresses and therefore re-proposes the theme of its formation.
As is known, Guido Dorso, 70 years ago, defined it as a "mystery of history": a mystery that the birth of the peculiar "no front", in which D'Alema, De Mita and Emiliano find themselves on the same side of Berlusconi and Grillo makes it even more obscure.
