“Without the money from Switzerland, I can’t even pay the employees.”

"I could tie myself to a factory to get my voice heard but then, what’d change? The truth is that nobody gives a damn about us border-mayors, write this like I said it, because it is right that people understand that I’m pissed off. My budget still needs €400,000 and I don’t know where to get them. Many other mayors have difficulties like me, they have works to get done and they don’t know how to pay for them." Sandy Cane, Viggiù’s mayor, does not rule out some sensational way of protesting to insist on the state of emergency in which the municipalities on the border are currently in. The money she is talking about is part of the €23 million that Switzerland still has to pay to Italy. They are a part of the rebates (calculated on the welfare contributions paid by border-workers) that have been blocked by Canton Ticino as a revenge against the fiscal policies of the Italian government.

"The quota that my municipality receives every year amounts to about €900,000, which account for a quarter of the whole budget.” The mayor from the ‘Carroccio’ explains. "And among the numerous spending cuts for local authorities, you can imagine the importance of this money. I run the risk of not being able to pay my employees. Let me be clear on this, rebates aren’t privileges; we get them because of the welfare contributions paid by Italians who work in Canton Ticino, who are in the numbers of thousands. The municipality of Viggiù alone counts a thousand, for 5,400 inhabitants.".

With this money, municipalities have funded in the past several works of public utility, such as roads and schools, and still do so today. "If Switzerland won’t give us this money, the Italian State needs to give them to us. And I want an act on paper because I don’t believe words any more. When Canton Ticino threatened the first blocking of the rebates, this summer, we all got to work. We met the representatives of the mountain communities, we wrote to the government, we put time and effort in this battle. But what became of our letter? After Berlusconi’s resignation, our plea went unheard. In these months, different people kept making promises, we’ve heard lots of words, but we’ve seen few facts. The question was even purportedly settled. And in fact, I still don’t know whether this money will arrive and I’m worried because we run the risk of not even getting that of 2012.".
This is because, just a few days ago, the Ticino League party threatened to repeat the blocking also for the current year, after the so called "fiscovelox" had been positioned by the Revenue Guard Corps along Como’s border. And after what happened, Italian mayors are starting to take notice of Bignasca’s threats. The mayors will hold a meeting again and will probably draft a new document for the government. "It is right to set up checks, but I wonder why we have to break our relationship with Switzerland, I wonder what we’d gain from it. Viggiù’s municipality alone counts about a thousand workers in Ticino, what am I going to do if they lose their jobs? Why can’t a meeting to tackle these topics be organised? Our Prime Minister comes from Varese, so why doesn’t he want to listen to the mayors of his territory, to the workers who don’t have social security cushions, to the atmosphere that can be felt when one crosses the border? I can’t but understand why people ask to be annexed to Switzerland, I might do that myself one day…".