News

Sardinia, in the streets to say no to the transfer of 41 bis prisoners to the island

by Davide Madeddu

28 February 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

In the streets to say no to 41bis inmates in Sardinian prisons. It was supposed to be a general mobilisation, and so it was. The demonstration promoted by the President of the Region of Sardinia, Alessandra Todde, against the transfer of 'highly dangerous' prisoners to the island's detention facilities was attended by more than 1,500 people: regional administrators, mayors, trade unions, associations and citizens. All under the Prefecture building, symbol of the Government in the city.

President Todde

From the President of the Region an attack on the Minister of Justice. "I call Minister Nordio's intervention disheartening. Disheartening because we met in September and I was not alone, I was with my secretary general and with the head of our legal department, and he told us verbatim that nothing had been decided and that things had yet to be moved forward,' said the governor on the sidelines of the mobilisation and in response to the written reply that the Guardasigilli gave to the M5s parliamentarians on the arrival of detainees under the 41 bis regime. Today, instead, we discover that it is a plan that comes from afar, that there are decisions that have already been made, and that right now it seems to have already been decided'.

First step of a long journey

A mobilisation, as the governor pointed out, that is the first step of a long process that will involve the entire regional territory. "We say that we are not against it, both because we fought to have an article in the Constitution on insularity, which certainly does not have this as its implementation,' she added. 'We want to be benefited by insularity, not penalised with yet another servitude. And I believe that this square should serve, with serenity, not to be against, but to say that we want a different Sardinia, that we want respect and certainly not these kinds of decisions that can help us'. In the square, there were also representatives of the trade unions, who expressed some concern about this eventuality, as did the mayors of various towns on the island.

The employers' organisations

Also taking a stand against the hypothesis of transferring prisoners subjected to the 41 bis special regime was Confindustria Sardegna, which expressed its concern in a communiqué shared with the regional trade associations Confapi, CNA, Confartigianato, Confcommercio, Confesercenti, and Coldiretti.

"Sardinia, due to its peculiar geographic and infrastructural condition, already bears a significant burden deriving from the presence of several high-security detention facilities," wrote the organisations representing the production world. Any increase in the number of detainees under the 41-bis regime would risk producing non-negligible effects on the economic and social level, affecting a fragile territory that is trying with determination to launch a development process aimed at attracting investment in high value-added sectors'

The request for confrontation

Not only that, from the employers' organisations the request for a confrontation to address the situation. "Without wishing to call into question the State's requirements in the field of security and the fight against organised crime, which are fully shareable objectives,' they write, 'it was considered appropriate to propose an institutional comparison that takes into account the economic and social specificities of Sardinia, as well as the overall impact that certain choices may generate on the local production fabric, with a view to a fair territorial distribution of responsibilities and related burdens.