The bill is a pet policy move of the right-wing League party, whose Upper House Whip Massimiliano Romeo hailed the success of a majority pact with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
The pact involved trading off their so-called ‘differentiated autonomy’ move with Meloni’s flagship policy of introducing the direct election of the Italian PM by the Italian people.
The latter is another controversial move that would allegedly strip Italian presidents of some of their powers and move towards a more authoritarian government, a claim the PM denies by lamenting the recent succession of unelected prime ministers.
The differentiated autonomy measure would give regions more power to collect and designate tax revenue.
Opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein condemned the trade-off, saying that the autonomy measure would make citizens already disadvantaged by the north-south gap even worse off in terms of public services.
She accused Meloni of trying to resurrect the League’s one-time “secession design”.
In its early days in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the then Northern League campaigned to break the affluent north away from the poorer south and an allegedly parasitic central government.
Critics of the proposal say differentiated autonomy is a surreptitious renewal of this project.
On Wednesday, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said it is only worth devolving more powers to Italy’s 20 regions if it serves to narrow the existing gap between north and south.
“Is this a way for us to become more supportive, to help each other, also in the knowledge of the big divide that exists between one part of Italy and another?” asked Parolin of the controversial bill.
“If this is the case, the move is welcome.
“If not, we have to ask whether it is really worth going down this road.”
ANSA
