"I am among those who will not vote on Sunday in the advisory referendum on regional autonomy because I consider it useless, idle, wasteful and even harmful because it looks to the past and evades the real problems of decentralization". Always a reformist, Piero Borghini, former president of the Lombardy Regional Council and former mayor of Milan and before that deputy director of the Unit and now animator of the bestist wing of the Renzian Democratic Party, makes no secret of his dissent on the referendum promoted by the League, even at the cost of distinguishing himself from the mayors of the Pd area of Milan and Bergamo. He explains why in this interview with FIRSTonline.
Borghini, on Sunday there will be a vote in Lombardy and Veneto in the advisory referendum on regional autonomy promoted by the League: the general impression, beyond the promoters, is that popular consultation is of little or no use because it will be difficult to obtain the consent of the majority of citizens and because, even if it were achieved, it would be necessary to open negotiations with the Government within the limits of the regional competences established by article 116 of the Constitution. What is the judgment on the regional referendum and what is the real stake?
“This referendum, given the way it was conceived and the questions it raises, is useless, idle and expensive. That is, in politics, the worst you can imagine. Even in the event of its resounding success, in fact, all that would be achieved is to break down an open door. In fact, the differentiated regionalism that one wants to obtain in this way is already foreseen by the Constitution, which however indicates another, much simpler way to achieve it, which is the one taken by the Emilia-Romagna region. Furthermore, if we wanted to look a little deeper, we would have to say that this referendum is also harmful because it looks to the past and not to the future and sidesteps the real political problem facing the country in terms of decentralization, which is not that of the greater or lesser autonomy of the Regions as they are today, but that of defining the new functions which, in the various territories, can and must be exercised at the municipal, inter-municipal, metropolitan and even regional level in the European context and the globalization of the economy".
The Governor of Lombardy, Roberto Maroni, says that the Piave line is the vote of 34% of those entitled, beyond which the referendum would be a success of participation: but what weight can a referendum have which, even in the most optimistic predictions, would it be supported – perhaps even worse than what happened in Catalonia – by less than half of the voters?
“No weight, in addition to what has already been conferred on it by the majority resolution of the regional council. However, the path to follow will be difficult because the outcome of the negotiations with the government will not be sufficient in itself, it will also be necessary to obtain the vote of the absolute majority of Parliament. A vote that can only take place if that agreement is deemed to be of national interest. In other words, if it will not only serve Lombardy but will be perceived as useful to all of Italy”.
Among the major regional responsibilities claimed by Lombardy and Veneto, the real crux remains the fiscal one and that is the request that a part of the tax revenues remain in the regions where the income is produced rather than ending up in the state coffers: it is a feasible request or, as they argue some southerners like Gianfranco Viesti and some constitutionalists like Valerio Onida, is this a request that risks creating new injustices?
“The concept of fiscal residue, i.e. the difference between what the citizens of a territory send to Rome and what the State spends there, is not easy to define or even quantify. The figure of 57 billion euros made by Maroni is clearly exaggerated. Experts on the subject speak of a figure between 20 and 30 billion, taking into account all the necessary corrections. Furthermore, it must be clear that, if the State transfers functions, it also transfers the burden of their financing so that, without prejudice to the gains from greater efficiency, which is also very important, there is a risk of a vicious circle. The main road should instead be that of a concrete evaluation, case by case, with objective technical criteria and with an experimental spirit. An assessment that I personally believe would bear greater fruit if it started from the metropolitan cities and the function they are called upon to perform in the national interest. A good example could come to us in this sense from Great Britain, perhaps the most centralized country in Europe, which however has launched a great experiment in the voluntary creation, i.e. from below, of large metropolitan areas (urban functional regions) with annexed fiscal federalism for the implementation of agreed programmes”.
Apart from the individual points under discussion, he does not believe that the regional referendum is the result of the NO victory in the constitutional referendum of 4 December which wanted to bring back to the center the competences of national interest such as those on energy, training, transport and that rests on an assumption that does not find empirical confirmation and that is that in certain fields the management of the Regions is better than that of the State?
“The training area is perhaps the most suitable for experiments in strong decentralization since technological density, research and training are decisive factors in the development of the territory. The knowledge economy, as we know, finds its natural habitat precisely in the metropolitan dimension. Hence the great political importance of the issue of governance (not administration) of metropolitan cities, an issue on which not only the national government, but above all the Lombardy Region has, until now, spectacularly failed. Other than a referendum!”.
While starting from much smaller objectives than those of the secessionists of Catalonia, don't you think that the path of regional referendums can once again fuel independence temptations rather than favor a new balance between the state and the periphery?
“The real risk of the referendum is that of a dead end, leading us nowhere. Greater Milan and Lombardy are not a frontier ethnic group, a linguistic minority at risk of extinction, they are the economic and social engine of the country. Italy certainly needs them, but they need Italy too”.
Compared to the acclaimed failure of the Northern League's Italian-style federalism, there are other Regions led by the Democratic Party such as Emilia-Romagna which are outlining a soft federalism strictly within the Constitution and which, precisely on the basis of article 116 of the Charter, aims to open a negotiating table with the central government by offering the direct management of some services - starting with work and training - in exchange for a part of the tax revenue produced by the Region: what is your opinion?
“Constitutionally it is the most sensible and correct way. However, I insist that the main road is the redefinition of the roles, tasks, responsibilities and functions of each level of government in a context that breaks with the top-down and closed logic of our administrative system in which several bodies, all endowed with general, overlap each other as in a matryoshka, to instead affirm a different logic, in which decisions are increasingly taken in a multi-sectoral context, of bargaining and collaboration between different subjects, both public and private" .
Winking at the League in view of the forthcoming electoral alliances, Silvio Berlusconi has proposed extending the regional referendums to all of Italy: what do you think and what political effects could the referendums have on the next electoral campaign?
“Since these referendums will lead to nothing concrete, I fear they will only create further discredit for politics, especially if reduced to propaganda as in this case. The central theme, also as a function of greater autonomy of the Regions, remains that of the reform of the State. Even those who voted No on 4 December last cannot escape this discourse".
