Mayors threaten mass resignation

 Today 40 mayors of the province of Varese have signed a document in which they threaten mass resignation. Facing “a situation of extreme financial unsustainability of the municipality”, the mayors dread “form of struggle and protest” towards the Government and the Parliament to the defence of citizens, including the mass resignation”.

The document denounces “how the table of the resources for 2014 for the municipalities, outlined in the Stability Law bill, amount to a financial situation totally unacceptable for our municipalities and citizens.”

At the core of the protests there are also part of provisions for Imu because “that situation is made even more serious because of the uncertainty on the refund of the second Imu payment for the municipalities, that is for the first house of almost € 3 billions, 500 millions of these are legitimately approved from the municipality in 2013.” The mayors ask the Government the loosening of the restrictions and a revision of the Stability Law, the “complete re-examination of the norms, further penalizing, relating to the local authorities as it is contain in the Stability Law bill” and the “guarantee of the complete repayment of the second Imu payment with the security deposit of the rates decided by the municipalities in 2013.”

There are at least two levels of interpretation for the summit of the mayors of this morning, in Palazzo Estense, led by Attilio Fontana, mayor of Varese. The first is the humiliation to which the local authorities have been exposed for years, the Government has taken away gradually from them the power to invest and to balance the books. The second is the political attention-seeking, on this frontline, of Attilio Fontana, mayor and member of the Lega party, which is the opposition in the Parliament and so with a great political advantage in going against the State. Fontana in his battle has at his side lots of mayors who are member of Pd. But if the Lega today can blame the governmental  duplex Monti-Letta for the decrease of the resources, what is the stance of the other party? The mayors members of the Pd party are armed and ready on the territory. There were Astuti of Malnate (in the public), Migliarino of Gorla Minore (who stepped-in with vim and vigour) and others in addition to Gadda and Senaldi. The only one who softened a bit the criticism towards the Government, this morning, was the honourable Daniele Marantelli who reminded them that a stricter application of the standard costs would be fairer and would allow the State to be less suspicious towards the wastefulness of the local authorities. There were some mayors members of the Pdl party but the Lega and the centre-left were most represented. Among the parliamentarians who took part in the meeting there were also Stefano Candiani and Giancarlo Giorgetti (Lega Nord).