The province, this is how it is going to change

Varese Province is about to change its appearance. The 5-year mandate of the current provincial leadership and council ends in April. And there are not going to be any new elections, because of the reform laws (the so-called “Save Italy” decree, which was made law by parliament) that the Monti government and the parliament passed a few months ago.

A commissioner
The first move will be by the Ministry of the Interior, who must appoint a commissioner. With an order of the day, in December, parliament said that, in the provinces that are about to expire, the appointed commissioner should be the current president.

Could Dario Galli be the commissioner?
Maybe. Dario Galli would remain in his place, with the job of commissioner given by the Ministry of the Interior, as has happened, for example, in Como. However, in view of the current regulations, the Ministry may appoint an official, as happens for town councils.

Farewell to the provincial council
The provincial council is disappearing for ever. At the moment, the regulations are incomplete. The law says that the province has become a second level organisation. It will no longer be the people who vote in 10 provincial councillors, but the town councils. However, the procedures in the new regulations still need to be clarified. A new parliament will have, therefore, to legislate, or rather, pass implementary decrees. But it must do so before 1 January 2014, because the law states that the reform must, in any case, be brought into force.

And what about the unification of the provinces?
There is another aspect that the new parliament will have to clarify. It will have to decide whether to resume legislating on the unification of the provinces, a law that was blocked by the fall of the Monti government.

Varese should have been united with Como. The decision caused controversy, but has, today, all been called off.

The powers of the provinces
Secondly, the parliament and the regions will have to decide what should be done with the duties currently performed by the provinces. At the moment, Varese Province, like the other provinces, has 19 areas in which it operates. These essentially boil down to 4 (the environment, roads and transport, territorial planning, school building). The other duties will have to be given to the region or to the local councils.

Today, a provincial council meeting has been scheduled. It should be the penultimate, or at most, the pre-penultimate.