Autonomy, from civil protection to foreign trade: here are the subjects already requested from Calderoli by the northern regions

North still in the front row on differentiated Autonomy: four regions sat down with Regional Affairs Minister Roberto Calderoli on Thursday morning to discuss non-Lep matters. Minister Calderoli, at the end of the meeting with the representatives of Veneto, Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy, spoke of an "important day", not only for the implementation of Autonomy, "but for the whole country", as "we are working to reduce the gaps and guarantee services to citizens, in compliance with the Constitution".

All this while the fate of the Calderoli law hangs on the forthcoming pronouncements of the Consulta (on 12 November on the law's legitimacy and in January on the abrogative referendum)

The leading Veneto region has demanded autonomy on all nine subjects for which there is no prior financing of the LEP (essential levels of services) that our Constitution demands to be guaranteed equal throughout the national territory. These are: Organisation of justice of the peace; International relations of the Region and with the EU; Foreign trade; Professions; Civil protection; Supplementary and supplementary pensions; Coordination of public finance and the tax system; Savings banks, rural banks, credit companies of a regional nature; Land and agricultural credit institutions of a regional nature. Liguria and Piedmont concentrated on six subjects and Lombardy on eight (all except justices of the peace).

All of them have made requests related to civil protection, the subject from which they will start. A choice that is in many ways the novelty of the day, sealed by Calderoli, who let it be known that the requests made by the regions will soon be made known not only in terms of subjects but also in terms of functions. 'In this way,' the minister stressed, 'it will be realised that it is a common sense operation to give the regions what they can do better than the state, leaving instead to the state what is right, in the interest of citizens, families, businesses and the whole country'. Enthusiastic was Veneto governor Luca Zaia, who did not hesitate to reiterate that 'decentralisation will help the lives of citizens. In short,' he explained at the end of the meeting, 'it will soon become clear that if you ask for the function, it will be easier to make, for example, derogation orders in the event of a natural disaster in a region. Making it possible for the president of the region to do them does not mean dismantling the national civil protection, but it does mean being more efficient in responding to citizens'.

The opposition continues to frown on the Autonomy issue: "The meeting is a real disgrace to national unity and equal rights and benefits for all," accuses the group leader of the Alliance of Greens and Left Peppe De Cristofaro . "Entrusting matters such as foreign trade and the environment to the regions is a glaring error, a hard blow - attacks Dem deputy Silvia Roggiani - to the productivity and competitiveness of the north and Lombardy. Against Calderoli's Autonomy our battle goes on'.