Alessandra Todde, president of the Sardinia Region, after the Council meeting of 31 July, announced the very near approval of a Resolution (already discussed during the same session) concerning the choice of a «team of experts who will work on the appeal to the Council against the Calderoli law" which, together with "the legal profession", will be of support "in this process".

In stating the reasons for this decision, and in launching "an appeal to the citizens, including Sardinians, who live in the northern regions", he wanted to specify that the contested law "undermines national cohesion and does not pay in the long term" as "it wants put the poorest regions aside".

Michele Cossa of the Reformatori declared that «the Calderoli law complicates the implementation of the principle of insularity», putting forward, at the same time, a question that would seem to deserve, as in fact it does, due attention: «What differentiated autonomy does the State want to create for the richest regions of the country, if it does not first address the issue of the delay in development caused by the condition of insularity?". Well. The concerns expressed by Sardinian politicians can be shared and the option of appealing to the Constitutional Court is considered necessary. Moreover, the reasons in support of the aforementioned intention are anything but groundless, if only for the fact that the Calderoli Reform, in the practical act of its implementation, would affect the daily lives of all Italians, both of those who live in the Northern Regions, as well as those who live in the Southern Regions and the Major Islands, as the wording of Article 5 of the Constitution expressly clarifies that "the Republic, one and indivisible, recognizes and promotes local autonomies ”.

Saying it otherwise, from this perspective, it seems very difficult to be able to reconcile, on a finalistic level, the reasons for what, in implementation of the Calderoli Reform, would translate into decentralization, with the reasons for solidarity and social cohesion . Especially when it would instead be useful to bridge the gap that already exists between the territorial contexts of the north of the country and the territorial contexts of the south and the islands, the latter of which, indeed, would instead require immediate interventions aimed at bridging the existing delays in their development, both on the health plan, as well as the economic and public transport plan. Furthermore, as underlined by many, the Calderoli law would have an impact on the distribution of legislative power between the State and the Regions as it presents itself today, diversifying it in some way.

The reasons for the existence of the exclusive power of the State in certain matters should be sought in the need to guarantee uniform regulation, so to speak, for certain matters, in turn justified by the need to avoid any potential violation of the principle of equality between all citizens enunciated by Article 3 of our Constitution. The latter principle should and should suggest every more careful reflection on the risk of fragmentation on the management and administrative level of the country in as many territorial contexts as there are existing regional realities, which could find themselves, so to speak, weakened in a vision overall of the country.

It is true that the country, examined in its multiple territorial divisions, presents itself with its own and peculiar characteristics both on a cultural and geographical level. But such characteristics should still be valorised with the aim of improving the communities of reference to achieve levels of uniformity that guarantee the full affirmation of the principle of socio-economic cohesion and solidarity. The very existence of Special Statute Regions was conceived at the time in a regulatory framework that still moved from the indispensable principle of the unity of the Italian Republic. And this unity still seems to need to be preserved.

Giuseppina Di Salvatore

(Lawyer – Nuoro)

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