"My wish is that the "voice of the country" can always express itself fully and be listened to. Authoritativeness will be conferred by the ability to keep faith with the decisive commitments undertaken in these difficult times. The fixed points are the guarantee of citizens' rights, that in the North as in the South, in the cities as in the towns, in the metropolis as in the inland areas, they must be able to experience the full validity of the constitutional principles".
Sergio Mattarella speaks to Anci, the association that brings together around 9,000 Italian municipalities, and talks about Autonomy, without ever mentioning it.
In the presence of the mayors, called together in Bergamo for the National Assembly of the ANCI, the President of the Republic lists "national cohesion" several times, calls for responsibility and recalls the "
"The Municipalities are Italy. They are the Republic, as stated in article 114 of the Constitution. The almost 9,000 Municipalities fulfill, with the same dignity and commitment, their responsibility to support our communities, offering services of a universal nature. The Constitution - he recalls - establishes the principle of equality for citizens and, of course, applies to the Municipalities, which must all be put in a position to fulfill the tasks entrusted to them, in order to contribute to the realization of the constitutional principle of equal dignity of citizens".
Equal dignity from north to south, is the heart of the reasoning of the president who in the morning had focused on the need for a strong institutional cohesion of the country also in a broader matter such as that of welfare: which, for Mattarella, "
And the president sews carefully but sets some stakes with an intervention aimed at relaunching national unity, collaboration between mayors, and that between the different levels of government.
A plot that for the president has resisted the pandemic very well and that no one has to tear up today.
Perhaps this is why Mattarella motivates the mayors to work together for the good of the country, keeping away from solitary escapes: "It is in the mission of the mayors to be bearers of the general interests of the country. It is necessary to avoid the temptation of closure in the narrow horizon of one's own "particular ". One would not even do the good of one's own community to imagine it contrasted with that of neighboring communities or, even, with that of the wider national community".
on the same length as
waved the president of ANCI Antonio Decaro who, recalling how "the theme of differentiated regionalism has returned to inflame the political debate in recent weeks", asks that the objective remain "the improvement of the level and quality of public services for all Italian citizens, in an attempt to reduce the distances that still exist between various areas of the country".
The head of state therefore closes with a concern that becomes increasingly pressing in his speeches: the implementation of the Pnrr, which "Italy cannot circumvent in order to make up for structural delays".