The judge has spoken: the words that change the picture

The Constitutional Court confirms the path indicated by Pratobello: urban planning is legal certainty, the planned destination of the territory cannot be cancelled by the convenience of speculation

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In March 2022, from these pages, we called Sardinia the Home of the Sardinian Family.

A "Home" inherited and entrusted to us to be given to those who come after us, if possible better than the one we received. We asked institutions, mayors, universities, social organizations, and the world of culture and information to unite in defending the territory. That editorial concluded with a hope: " There will also be a Judge ," capable of recognizing our community's right to live in a clean, orderly Sardinia governed in the best interests of its inhabitants.

That Judge has spoken.

Ruling no. 127, filed by the Constitutional Court on July 16, 2026, also provides Sardinia with principles that will impact the fight against energy speculation.

The Court states, referring to a non-island appeal, that agricultural land is " an increasingly scarce resource " and that balancing its protection with the spread of renewable energy requires " careful land-use planning ." Above all, it establishes that the urban classification of land is not an abstract formula: it is a legal requirement.

The Court established the essential point: the territory is governed through planning, and planning produces legal certainty.

The path indicated before the sentence

On June 26, 2024, this newspaper called on the Region to exercise the primary legislative power recognized by Article 3, letter f) of the Special Statute on Building and Urban Planning, arguing that Sardinia should apply its constitutional prerogative to defend its territory from the devastating speculative assault: to decide, through urban planning, what function to assign to the territory and what transformations to prevent in order to protect the landscape, as a limited natural resource and, therefore, of inestimable economic value due to its attractiveness.

We also made an explicit commitment: if political decision-makers failed to act, we would support a popular initiative bill based on the Statute.

From that commitment and the mobilization of committees and mayors, from legal research and the growing awareness of the Sardinian community, Pratobello 2024 was born.

The proposal laid its foundation precisely in Article 3, letter f) of the Special Statute: Sardinia's primary jurisdiction over building and urban planning. This provision is contained in the constitutional statute established by the Founding Fathers.

That proposal collected 210,729 signatures .

Over the summer, under the blazing sun, tens of thousands waited their turn in front of town halls across the island to sign it. On October 2, 2024, the precious packages were delivered to the Regional Council, accompanied by a popular mobilization unprecedented in Sardinia's history of autonomy.

Behind those signatures was a clear awareness that the data, maps, procedures, regulations, connection requests, and pseudo-industrial projects were disproportionate not only to the island's needs but also to a reasonable contribution to the energy transition of other regions.

Investigations by the L'Unione Sarda Group had documented connection requests for over 50 Gigawatts, a production theoretically sufficient to satisfy the needs of fifty million inhabitants, while less than 1.6 million people live in Sardinia.

Although the enormity of the connection requests to Terna inherently poses physical challenges that are difficult to overcome, these challenges also mean there is a huge risk of approaching them over time, with a parallel and progressive process of landscape, environmental, and production devastation.

The Sardinia Region's acceptance, at the State-Regions Conference in June 2025, of allowing the installation of a full 6.2 gigawatts on the island, sufficient to meet the energy needs of 6 million residents, did not and does not help. This was accepted as a minimum limit, and therefore expected to increase.

Making this disproportion public did not mean arming Sardinia against renewable sources – or raising political issues that are happy to be left to professional politicians – but rather asking a question that politics had until then avoided: who decides how much to produce, where to produce, with what technologies, and in whose interest?

Our position has always been clear: yes to the energy transition, no to energy colonization; yes to renewable sources, no to speculation that damages the landscape; yes to economic initiative, no to the replacement of public planning with private speculation.

The accusations and the duty to inform

For reporting on the plans, scale, and consequences of the energy assault, this newspaper and its editorial staff were subjected to harsh attacks.

They accused us of being against modernity, business, and clean energy, accusations even accompanied by requests (later shelved) for censorship from the Order of Journalists, in the style of Bolshevik memory.

These were false and offensive accusations.

This publishing group had done its job: researching, verifying, investigating, documenting, and explaining, without claiming to replace the legislator, so that every Sardinian could form an informed opinion.

Informing also means promoting a mobilization of consciences, and the Pratobello 2024 Popular Initiative Law was exactly this: a powerful manifestation of collective will, peaceful and conscious, in defense of the interests of the Home, of the Sardinian Family, of their Island, of Sardinia.

The road ignored by politics

The regional political class chose not to adopt this proposal as the basis for its legislative action. It preferred to first approve the so-called moratorium and then the law on suitable and unsuitable areas, circumventing the primary power over urban planning guaranteed by the Statute.

The results are written in the sentences.

The Constitutional Court declared Article 3 of Regional Law No. 5 of 2024 on the moratorium illegitimate with Decision No. 28/2025; it declared numerous provisions of Regional Law No. 20 on suitable areas illegitimate, naively considered crucial, with Decision No. 184/2025.

The result: wasted time, mutilated regulations, and a Sardinia exposed to a regulatory vacuum precisely at the moment of maximum speculative pressure.

The proposal signed by 210,729 informed citizens suggested a different path: to assert the primary jurisdiction over urban planning matters contained in the Autonomy Statute, which is legally much stronger and more resistant to foreseeable state challenges because it is a law of constitutional rank.

Today (albeit belatedly), ruling no. 127 of 16 July 2026 indisputably confirms the strength of that choice.

The words that change the picture

The Constitutional Court writes: " The need for legal certainty requires reference to classifications of a legal nature ."

He adds: " The classification of a piece of land, in fact, determines a legal condition suitable for expressing not only the current suitability of the land, but also its functional potential ."

And it further states: « The circumstance that there may exist, as a mere factual and contingent fact, degraded land or land temporarily unused for agricultural purposes, does not allow us to ignore the urban planning vocation given to the land by virtue of its planning destination ».

The conclusion is equally clear: " If the concrete agricultural use of the area is not relevant, its abstract usability as such is relevant ."

They are milestones.

Agricultural land that has not been definitively transformed could, precisely thanks to its urban planning classification, be used in the future for higher-quality production.

Urban planning therefore protects the present and future not only of productive land, but also of landscape assets and the archaeological heritage that defines its identity.

It protects not only what is seen today, but also what a community has the right to see or achieve tomorrow.

In this sense, the political responsibility of recent regional legislatures is clear: the right to complain and grumble—which always accompanies the demand for additional state powers, which, as is often said, would miraculously solve Sardinia's problems!—should have been accompanied by the effective exercise of existing powers, such as those of our Statute of Autonomy, to protect the island's territory.

The burden on 370,000 hectares

Due to the regulatory vacuum created by inertia, a new impediment now weighs: state law no. 4 of 15 January 2026, which has effectively identified, for Sardinia, approximately 370,000 hectares potentially designated as suitable areas .

An immense extension that the State intends to remove from regional prerogatives.

The Region - and the Gallura and Sarcidano Committees, presenting a brief to the Court as Amicus Curiae - challenged the law before the Constitutional Court, rightly denouncing the violation of the Special Statute, of the urban planning, landscape and energy competences and of the principle of loyal collaboration.

It is strange, however, that although much of the regional appeal against the state law aims to defend primary jurisdiction over urban planning, this same jurisdiction was not exercised in defense of the Landscape when there was time.

Common-sense and curious people ask themselves: why?

The effects of the regulatory loophole—which still persists and has already allowed, and will continue to allow, the passage of outdated projects, detrimental to the island's landscape, production, and identity—can be mitigated by the defense mechanisms that Sardinia's municipal administrations can implement.

The duty of the Municipalities

In fact, ruling no. 127 also speaks directly to municipal administrations.

Municipalities can be the protagonists of a rapid planning season to protect agricultural areas, ecosystems, distinctive landscapes, traditional productions, and particularly fragile territories.

They can specify the intended uses, identify incompatibilities, consolidate constraints and prohibitions, and prevent the temporary non-use of a piece of land from being misused for speculative energy transformation.

The Court explained that the urban planning classification determines a " legal status " that protects the vocation impressed on the land by the planning.

Mayors of municipalities genuinely interested in protecting their territories should translate these principles into valid and effective administrative tools, with urban planning measures that are well-informed, motivated, and supported by agronomic, landscape, environmental, and ecosystem assessments, as well as by a clear explanation of the function assigned to the portions of land being planned and the public interest reasons that necessitate their protection.

The adoption of a municipal urban planning variant entails the introduction of a Safeguard Clause, which lasts for three years. During its validity, it would be easier for municipalities to defend their land from speculative attacks.

The function of a newspaper

A free newspaper doesn't just record the decisions of those in power. It monitors, investigates, reports, anticipates risks, advocates and formulates proposals, and holds institutions accountable.

He has documented, in over three thousand pages published since the early years of this century, the energy crisis when many denied it. He has distinguished the transition from speculation. He has advocated primary urban planning jurisdiction as an effective remedy. He has supported the right of Sardinians to promote a popular initiative law. He has defended his editorial staff from attacks and censorship claims.

The story of the 210,729 signatures demonstrates that an informed community cannot be manipulated. It is a community that, once informed, reasons, chooses, and acts through the tools permitted by law.

In 2022 we wrote: " There must be a Judge ." The judge has spoken, and from now on, no one will be able to say they didn't know.

Because, to quote Don Lorenzo Milani: if you know, you are, if you don't know you are at the mercy of someone else .