The Andrea Doria, the state battleship, glimpses the pier in via Roma, in the old port of Cagliari, when the hands of the Quirinale clock mark 8.30 on 26 October 1951. The handwritten chronicles on the presidential notes tell that less than a An hour later, the President of the Republic, Luigi Einaudi, and his wife, landed on the island of Sardinia. To welcome them there are a future Head of State, the then Minister of Agriculture Antonio Segni, the President of the Sardinian Region, by name "Autonomous" and "Special", Luigi Crespellani, prefects, generals, commissioners, regional, provincial and municipal councilors . Everything and more. The chronicle is narrated as a "pastoral" visit to the rear of the State of Rome, the one that landed in Sardinia after a catastrophic flood that devastated towns and countryside, from Muravera to San Vito, passing through Villaputzu.

State alms

As the story of this fleeting change of state on the broken mule tracks of the island also articulates, the populations, albeit devastated by the onslaught of yet another nefarious calamity, "pay a warm welcome to the Head of State". The story told by the scribbler of the Palace is still the stuff of a monarchical apparatus: «The procession of cars - write the manuscripts - stops in the Municipality of Muravera. The President of the Republic and Mrs. Einaudi are welcomed with cordial demonstrations by the population lined up along the main street of the town». The tissue of the Quirinale, diligently preserved in the State Archives, is long-winded in its details to the point of revealing for history "the moved gratitude of the victims" repaid - writes the intrepid court biographer - "with a copious distribution of blankets, various and large sums of money. The pace of "solidarity" magnificence stands out when the Head of State and his wife arrive in San Vito. In the annals of the Quirinale we read: «The entire population of this Municipality is gathered in the town square and welcomes the President with warm and affectionate applause. Mrs. Einaudi distributes chocolate to the children while the President distributes clothes and sums of money».

Impassable roads

There is no more time, the story goes: "The persistent rains have made the roads leading to the Nuorese impassable". Shortly before fourteen the presidential procession is back on the Andrea Doria where, according to the accounts of the apparatus, "an intimate breakfast" is eaten. Before leaving the horizon, the Head of State takes his leave with a "radio message", both institutional and rhetorical: «I would have liked my visit to the flooded areas to have been concluded only after effective contact with all the affected centres. Unfortunately, the permanent interruptions in connections forced me to limit my schedule and I'm about to leave the island». Roads unusable for inland areas, a few hours on the presidential Lancia Aurelia B12, forced to follow Sardinian mule tracks rather than the easy Roman consular roads, large sums of money donated as state charity and even the Palazzo's chocolates. That's all, the "pastoral" visit of Luigi Einaudi, the Head of State, to Sardinia.

Black Beast of the Island

However, it will not be this hit and run on the island, inexplicably "acclaimed", to carve his name in the history of this mistreated borderland. A lot has been said about him, surly and severe, mocking and impetuous, a world-renowned economist, rigorous and statist to the core. Einaudi, born Luigi Numa Lorenzo, before becoming the second President of the Italian Republic, was the Minister of Finance and Treasury of the fourth government of Alcide De Gasperi, needless to do it on purpose, the one in office for the launch of the Autonomous Statute of Sardinia. It is here that the banker who became Head of State indissolubly marked the fate of the Sardinian constitutional charter. The posthumous rereading of those "constituent" passages could in no way spare him the title of "black beast" of the Sardinian Autonomy.

Time for money

The chimes of the Montecitorio bell tower have not yet struck six in the evening. It was January 28, 1948 when the right hand of the Minister of the Budget, Vice President of the Council of Ministers, asked for the floor during a packed session of the Constituent Assembly. The art has just come under discussion. 8 of the future Statute of the Sardinian Region. Not just any article, but the heart of the law, the "portfolio" of the future Autonomy. In that article the transfers of the State to the Special Region are regulated, the percentages are established with which the State will have to return to Sardinia the sums collected from the payment of taxes on the island's territory. When Einaudi, the most powerful minister in the De Gasperi government, takes the floor, many perceive that the winter desperately feared by Lussu is about to descend on the Statute of Sardinia. It is the incipit of the head of public accounts that makes it clear that temperatures are about to drop dramatically. The floor to Minister Einaudi: "I feel the duty, ladies and gentlemen, to take the floor on this article 8, to express the serious concerns that your wording arouses in me regarding the state budget and its balance". The intervention is articulated, all aimed at dismantling the claims contained in the proposed Statute, the one, to be clear, much more tenuous, in terms of powers and transfers, compared to the Sicilian one that Lussu would have wanted to make his own for Sardinia. He dismantles it piece by piece, ignoring in all respects the peculiarities of the Island, evoking the state financial disaster if the concept ever passes that the taxes enforced on the Island should remain available to the newly formed Region. He says this openly verbis : "From the point of view of the state budget, this fundamental fact is of greater importance: that, in substance, very little is left to the state". He totally loses his trebizond when he sees the possibility that the Sardinian Statute will make the Region collect the taxes on what is produced in Sardinia.

Einaudi's frost

In practice, according to Einaudi, it would be madness to leave those taxes on movable wealth to the Sardinians, those who a few years later hailed him around the island. It is a crucial issue, given that most of the companies established or about to do so, such as Saras, had their tax residence outside the island. Einaudi concludes, his position is without appeal: "it can't be done". It's freezing on Sardinia. But it's not over. Shortly after, he requests the floor: "I ask that the entire financial title of this constitutional law be postponed". Emilio Lussu asks to speak and addresses the "maestro" Einaudi directly. Don't mince words: it's not an accounting issue, rebalancing is a political and substantial game. Impossible for Lussu to consider the Island of Sardinia like any other region. And he doesn't send him to say: «You are wrong, illustrious honorable Maestro Einaudi, if you tackle these problems with purely technical and scientific criteria, you run the risk of encountering situations, which I do not call tragic, but I certainly believe, with good reason , to be able to call dramatic. Above all, these are political problems and it is neither science nor technology that has prompted all the responsible parties of the country and the Government to seek a solution to them. With these criteria, dear colleague Einaudi, we do not solve anything". Seventy-four years later, Sardinia is now starting its autonomistic ordeal again. At the door are the claims of the strong Regions. They ask for more money and powers. However, there is still no insular and economic rebalancing on the island.

(2.continued)

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