Le Città metropolitane tra timori della Corte costituzionale e inerzia del legislatore

Some provisions of law n. 56/2014 have been judged by the Constitutional Court on three different occasions (dec. nn. 50/2015, 168/2018, 240/2021), thus generating an oscillating case law. The objects of the review were the founding power and the form of government of metropolitan cities (in particular, the automatic legislative designation of the metropolitan Mayor). At first, in 2015 and 2018, the Court considered these provisions not to be in conflict with some constitutional principles (of popular sovereignty, autonomy, equality of vote), raising doubts among the doctrine; however, it carried out a sort of overruling, given the fact that the reasons given as the basis for the previous decisions no longer existed. In fact, the automatic legislative designation of the Metropolitan Mayor – that was considered not unreasonable in the initial phase and not irreversible, in the light of the statutory option for direct election – was deemed incompatible with the aforementioned principles and not fully democratic, due to the political irresponsibility of government bodies. Although the final decision of inadmissibility due to legislative discretion, the Court issued a specific “warning” to the legislator so as to solve straightaway this contrast. This seems likely to happen shortly, given the bills under discussion and the attempts to reform TUEL. In this context, the exceptional case of the split – happened in Reggio Calabria – between the metropolitan and the municipal Mayor appears emblematic. Indeed, this could be the right opportunity to rethink the (“asystematic”) system of autonomies, emancipating the CC.MM. from flattening the Provinces and giving greater importance to the real micro-regions of Rome, Milan and Naples.