Caspian Report - Issue: 07 - Spring 2014

In this regard, Nichi Vendola is one of
the most meaningful cases in Europe,
since he is a successful politician who
in 2009 founded the SEL party (Sinistra
Ecologia Libertà, literally Left,
Ecology and Freedom). Throughout
his political career, Vendola has received
many votes not only from the
far left, where his party should be
placed, but also from an electorate
that usually voted for other political
factions, even right-wing parties.
His ideas, well explained and clearly
articulated given that he is a highly
skilled politician, are based mainly on
a brand of environmentalism that inevitably
takes on anti-modernity positions,
envisaging a poorly defined
social vision in which people can
achieve liberation from dependence
on technology.
The influence of local authorities in
the permissions process is one of the
most debated issues in relation to infrastructural
developments, or rather
the lack thereof. After more than ten
years since the transfer of a major
part of these competences from central
governments to local authorities,
a large political coalition now argues
that it is time to re-centralise the full
scope of these competences. In early
2001, a weak left wing government
managed, few days before resigning,
to get parliament to approve changes
to the 5 th section of the Italian constitution.
These changes were later
voted in by the Italian people through
a referendum and thus signed into
law in November 2011. In that period,
the constant pressure to improve the
efficiency of Italian politics paved the
way for federal ideas (so-called “devolution”),
as if this alone could solve
the problems in national politics.
The strongest party in some parts of
the richer northern Italian regions
was the Northern League, a quasiseparatist
party. It was believed that
increased involvement by regions,
provinces and municipalities would
help streamline the permissions
process, at the same time as improving
citizens’ support for democracy.
Constitutional Law no. 3 of November
2001 transferred competences
from the central government to the
regions, and energy was one of the
issues involved in that transfer. This
Law has been widely recognized as
a failure, since the problems raised
by local communications cannot be
solved in any case. One of the objectives
of the new government led by
the young Matteo Renzi is to re-centralise
some of the competences now
managed by the regions and among
these is energy. This would not be an
easy process, but these are necessary
steps if Italy wants to modernise its
energy sector, and remain a major
European and international economy.
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CASPIAN REPORT, SPRING 2014