The mayor to Bignasca: “becoming Swiss could be good for us”

The leader of the League of Ticino, Giuliano Bignasca, suggests, during an interview, to annex the provinces of the northern part of Lombardy to the Canton Ticino. The mayor of Morazzone, Luigi Bianchi, makes a higher bid: “if it was up to me, I would prefer somebody more similar to us.” We publish his consideration.

I am trying to reflect, as a mayor of a territory of Insubria, on the recent Giuliano Bignasca’s proposal: an extended Canton Ticino of a Swiss Insubria. It depends on how you want to see it. Evidently, if this proposal stirs the imagination of Politicians and common people it is because on this side of the border there is a sense of uneasiness in citizens that has reached the alert level. The provinces on the border with the Helvetica Confederation are among the most productive in the Italian peninsula and in Europe. On the other side, we have a fiscal residual with the Italian republic that is abominable: we give more money than we get from the Central State. In my town, 4,400 inhabitants, the taxpayers pay an amount of 24 million of euro in taxes and from Rome only a little 4% comes back, a percentage that is going down after the recent cuts in the local authority. This means that the 96% is divided with other indefinite parts. It is evident that this is not about underselling us to the Swiss for a song – however the people of Ticino are similar to the ones of Lombardy in language, culture and tradition – as somebody wants us to believe! By the way, we are now undersold by Rome, so, if it was up to me, I would prefer somebody more similar to us, and not only somebody that can secure a fiscal and tax equity, along with efficiency. Now, it has become a matter of survival!!! Even the people of Ticino have understood that it can be a mutual advantage to have a Canton Ticino with the annexation of industrious and productive provinces such as Varese. Not to mention the advantages that our firms would have: fiscal imposition drastically lower, more dynamic relationships with lending institutions, etc… if we think then about the Swiss rigour in the public services[1] , well… every doubt fades away, because I, as many other citizens, am fed up with the Roman marsh and I prefer by far the green, tidy and clean fields of the Confederation!