WTI Magazine #15    2014 Jan, 31
Author : Francesca Papasergi      Translation by:

Piedmont has always been considered one of the most industrious and well-off regions in Italy. This north-western territory used to be productive and rich in small and medium enterprises, but nowadays it is enduring hard times because of the crisis.

Unemployment rates increased prominently, and the cassa integrazione (a public help to workers who had their working hours reduced or totally suspended ) reached a huge amount of hours. Lately, FIAT - the largest manufacturing company in Italy, settled in Turin since its foundation - merged with Chrysler Motors and became FCA, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

The blue-collar workers and their unions are extremely worried about their future. They represented the hard-working middle class of Piedmont. It wasn't easy, of course. It took sacrifices and efforts, but their dignified, upstanding way of life allowed them to afford mortgages, new cars, their children's university costs, and this model identified the baby boomers' generation in Italy. Nowadays, the working class struggles harder and harder to make ends meet.

The lack of structural reforms, high taxes, delocalization and competition from countries like China, Poland, Romania and others, where labor and welfare costs are lower, are destroying the formerly wealthy social fabric and the economy of the of the area.

Politically speaking, Piedmont has had its issues recently. Four years after the regional elections, the "governor"¹ Roberto Cota was condemned by TAR. The Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale's (TAR) jurisdiction is generically identified in public administration's acts (and their effects); every region has its own TAR. The second and last level of administrative justice in Italy is the Consiglio di Stato, and it is national-based. TARs' red tape is very infamous in Italy but, in their defense, we must consider the enormous number of appeals they receive every year.

One of the small lists that supported Mr. Cota was created collecting forged signatures. Because of this scam, the ballots are considered invalid, which makes the council illegitimate. As already said, this decision came four years after the date of the elections!

Mr. Cota says he's not going to leave his office, but the council he leads, already compromised, has another motive to be seriously worried. The Piedmont branch of the 'Wild Reimbursements" scandal revealed that many local representatives, mostly from the center-right parties, spent public money too easily, for their own personal expenses. In a region where the budget for health services and for disabled and elderly people assistance were dramatically cut – in Italy this kind of services are regions' prerogatives² – the governor and many councilors allegedly used public money to buy green underpants (green is the flagship color of Northern League, Mr. Cota's party), their children's horseback riding courses, private and expensive dinners in luxurious restaurants and much more.

Piedmont's citizens don't know when the next elections will be called, but they are sure of one thing: Mr. Cota may have bought new underpants, but they won't let him take theirs! (The hilarious saying "Take someone's underpants off" in Italian slang means "to rob, to dupe someone")

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¹The word 'governor' is improper, but journalists keep using it. The Presidents of the Regions in Italy don't have the same powers nor the same functions of American States' governors.
²This rules should be object of the announced Constitution's Part V reform: it determines the powers partition among national government and local authorities (regions, provinces and municipalities).