«I know politics, I know that the balance changes, the needs of representativeness also, new experiences can arise. But there is an unwritten grammar of behavior and manners that has been pulverized by a palace operation. And the most annoying thing was the childish attempt to separate responsibilities between the Council and the Executive."

Christian Solinas, 47 years old, outgoing president of the Region and secretary of the Psd'Az, swears he has no regrets. With a perfidious Christian Democrat sweetness, he rejects the logic of pebbles in shoes but dots every i left to the wind. The candidacy lost to make room for Paolo Truzzu, mayor of Cagliari; criticism of the work of the Council; his alleged attitude as a voracious administrative sloth. He accepts all questions, doesn't bat an eye at the most ferocious criticisms but fights back with numbers. "You can't bluff with data."

He's about to pack his bags: is he sad?

«I am at peace with my conscience, I have carried out this role with discipline and honour. I am sure that history will read the action of this council correctly."

Some national leaders of his coalition hit the council hard.

«I'll try to answer with facts. I signed the most advantageous revenue agreement for Sardinia as well as the one on provisions. We have distributed an avalanche of money to the Municipalities to really slow down depopulation. We had one hundred million for insularity, 400 for the previous one. We enjoy sharing in Irpef and VAT revenue. The Tagliagambe Institute has certified that the average income of Sardinians has grown by 10 percent, the third best performance in Italy."

A huge success. So why didn't they confirm it right away?

«I would first like to mention another important fact: Fitch, one of the three major global agencies, has confirmed a higher rating for the Sardinia Region than that of the State to which it belongs».

Among the criticisms, there is that of having worked little and spent very little.

«When I was elected I thought I would behave like any good family man. First of all, I canceled the deficit, so whoever arrives will find the certified accounts. The issue now will be to streamline bureaucracy but it is only possible because the budgets are in order."

They accuse him of not having had a great council. Was there anyone unpresentable?

«The composition of a council is the result of political balances that go beyond the choices of the president. Each party designates its own delegation and the councilors are the projection of the council groups."

But they say that very little reached the Council from the Council: were you a bit stingy?

«Let's go back to the numbers that go beyond talk. This Council has produced fewer laws than previous ones while the Council has made more resolutions than those who governed before us. Or I think of laws that started here with 20 articles and were approved with one hundred. What are the major reforms that the Council has made on its own initiative?".

To go by the numbers, we haven't seen much of you in the Council.

«Ask the clerks: how many hours did Solinas spend every day at Villa Devoto? I worked sixteen hours a day. This work slowed down by the absence of the President of the Council is crazy reading. The system provides that there is a Prime Minister who takes care of the legislative function while I had an executive task. It is a false representation of reality made above all by the M5S."

But they say that in reality she had anything but evil relations with the opposition...

«I have always sought a constructive dialogue despite the distinction of roles. If I believed that a proposal was useful for Sardinia, I never made it a question of color."

Healthcare was one of your weakest points, is that worth it?

«I like to remember that as soon as I took office, we announced competitions for 1867 positions».

So why did everything go down the drain?

«Because in the meantime we have reached the bottleneck of decades of limited numbers in the Faculty of Medicine. If I look for a hundred anesthetists, ten show up. The same goes for professional nurses, family doctors and so on. Today things have changed but it will take more than ten years to see the results of the change."

And the monstrous waiting lists? Does he feel guilty for this at least?

«I would point out that they were already huge when we arrived. And then maybe we forgot that Covid happened with all that it meant."

The most severe and attentive councilor on the topic of healthcare, Desirè Manca of the M5S, is also the most voted.

«An excellent result, I hope that in the new council she will be a health councilor to be able to deal with it from another point of view. And in any case when she was hospitalized she had different words about regional assistance."

You are accused of having created sub-government positions with the healthcare reform and the reintroduction of the local health authorities.

«The alleged sub-government positions had also been retained by the ATS, which everyone wanted to abolish. The number of seats has not changed. My reform saw the idea of centralization for purchasing and then local companies in the area confirmed in Ares. It's a shame that the parties strongly opposed the centralization that wanted to reduce costs."

Let's continue with the alleged armchair factories: you have reintroduced the provinces, even if the Government has brought you before the Council.

«And we won, by the way. The choice that had been made previously was a mega province, from Villasimius to Carloforte, with Carbonia as the capital: was it normal that for a document from Muravera one had to go to Sulcis? And then the expectations of territories such as Medio Campidano, Ogliastra, Gallura were mortified. Among other things, the suppression of the Provinces did not cancel the functions, the secondary schools, the roads. The political impulse was missing, this was the only real change. The underlying reasoning was the restoration of autonomy."

But a battle had been waged to cancel them, a referendum.

«It is interesting to note that the party that had spent the most on abolition had the only political commissioner. The others, chosen by the centre-left, remained the same."

If you have to pin a medal on your chest, which one do you choose?

«Definitely the agreement on revenue and the law on birth rates and against depopulation. Six hundred euros a month for five years for a child, the possibility of renovating a house in the historic center and starting a business with de minimis contributions do not solve the problem of fleeing the villages but they certainly help couples to stay ».

And the law you're a little ashamed of?

«I struggle to recognize myself in certain omnibus provisions approved by the Council in which the generality that distinguishes the laws has been lost sight of. If all the outgoing and re-nominated regional councilors saw their votes double, it means that they were able to provide answers to the territory."

As a Sardinian secretary, how did the elections go?

«Given the failure to reconfirm the centre-right government, it was a satisfactory result, the second best since the direct election of the president. I think of crazy peaks like Oristano, Paulilatino, Bosa."

Do you still consider the agreement with the League to be useful?

«I am not the initiator of relations with the League, I just closed a circle and a tradition. The agreement goes back a long way. I remember that when Bossi arrived in Parliament for the first time, he shared a room with Carlo Sanna and was so passionate about the Sardinian statute that he adopted it in the League. We have made programmatic agreements, the oldest federalist party in Europe with the largest."

But part of the party continues to disapprove.

«The congress that will decide the political line for the next three years will be held on April 17th, that is the place to discuss. What is certain is that the liberticidal law with the national threshold of 4 percent forces us to make agreements if we want to be represented."

Let's go back to the beginning: the judicial measure that hit her definitively put her out of action. But maybe she was already out.

«I keep some reflections to myself. However, I know that the centre-right won in Sardinia by over 40 thousand votes: it therefore means that the overall opinion on the work of the council was positive".

Yet some centre-right leaders immediately fired bullets at the work of the council.

"They had misread the data, so much so that they then had to take it all back."

In Truzzu's place, would he have won?

«It is a sterile exercise because there is no counter-proof. However, I would have explained the need to give continuity to many administrative actions initiated."

A palace conspiracy?

"History will clarify why while the indicators of government action were all positive, a group of councilors built a negative image of what was being done."

A national settling of accounts between FdI and Lega, punishing Solinas by targeting Salvini?

"I do not know this. I saw a muscular exercise on who is stronger that regardless of the quality of the work."

Who swore it to him?

«Let's say that someone who is too independent, not very inclined to the rites of a certain Cagliari culture, certainly displeased someone».

Lorenzo Paolini

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