After twenty months as regional councilor for agriculture, Gianfranco Satta announced his resignation today.
He made this statement on the sidelines of a press conference at the Laore headquarters, during which he announced the implementation status of the 2014-2022 Rural Development Plan: "We have reached 98.6 percent of spending," he said. "Since I've been here, the paying agency Argea has paid out 470 million euros, an unprecedented level."
Satta held the position of head of the department on the Progressives' side, but Massimo Zedda's party had been calling for his replacement for months because they no longer felt represented by the Sassari regional councilor . Now, Regional President Alessandra Todde could soon appoint Francesco Agus, the leader of the Progressives' group in the Sardinian Assembly, to replace him.
Making the announcement, Satta described it as "a decision made with a sense of responsibility because I believe this sector should be represented by a politically stable councilor." Instead, "my role has been questioned for weeks, and not because of the results."
Satta stated that he had awaited the Constitutional Court's ruling on the dismissal ("It was not my intention to weaken the role of the President of the Region") , but also the recently held regional elections because "even in that case there were political aspects, and it didn't seem right to me to open a period of uncertainty in the political leadership of this department."
"I feel good about myself," he added, "I've worked hard for a sector that needs stability." But, "in our Region, Agriculture is treated like a second-tier department."
Satta also said he'll try to do as a regional councilor what he failed to do as a councilor . For example? A reform of public services in agriculture, given that the last one dates back to 2006: "Politics is far removed from today's needs in agriculture and fishing."
The Sassari regional councilor is in his second term as regional councilor: over the years , he has served in the Democratic Federation, the DS, the PD, and, until the last seven years, the Progressives . Regarding the latter party, "I had high expectations regarding the connections it could have at the national level, which is what we sought to achieve with the election of Francesca Ghirra."
In reality, "I believe we need an organized party to support a process of reforming public services in agriculture." Now, in the Regional Council, "I will work to find political forces that share this path. " What matters are "results, not political maneuvering. I understand the needs of a political force, even if it's organized territorially (the Progressives, ed.) and in which I am an electoral shareholder by half ("I alone received more votes than all the candidates who ran in Nuoro") .
But after seven years, what went wrong with the Progressives? "What happened was that in the last regional elections, I got a higher percentage than in Cagliari. And then I was appointed councilor, and that sparked other discussions. I collaborated with them; I had a cabinet chief who until the other day was an Agus collaborator."
In any case, "I'm not looking for a confrontation. I'm just emphasizing that the era of evaluating councilors based on their work is over, and not on the fact that there was an additional request for a cabinet assistant. Otherwise, we'll only increase the percentage of people who don't vote."
Starting tomorrow, Satta will leave the Progressives group and join the Mixed Group . And for the Progressives, "what is now a tradition will continue, given that in the 2014-2019 legislature they started with six councilors (then there was Sel) and finished the five-year term with just one councilor; in the previous legislature, we started with seven and ended with three." Therefore, "the problem is not me," and "starting tomorrow, the group will consist of only two councilors."
And now? "If there are organized political forces capable of supporting agricultural reform, I'd be happy to discuss it." With whom? "With a strong and organized party behind me that considers agriculture a leading sector in Sardinia." Obviously, there were discussions with other parties. At that point, Satta recalled his career—Democratic Federation, DS, PD—and declared his intention to remain within that framework. It's therefore likely that he'll soon return to the Democratic Party.