Garda Provinces Union: Formation, Inactivity, and Regional Challenges

It seems that the Garda Provinces Association, established on April 9, 1997, by the presidents of the three provinces bordering Lake Garda (Brescia, Trento, Verona), with the addition of Mantova, has vanished into thin air. During that meeting, held in Garda, it was agreed to create this Union “as a tool to achieve the objectives for which it was established”.

It addressed a series of issues directly affecting the entire Garda area, ranging from road traffic and ecosystem management, to navigation regulation and territorial coordination and planning, with particular regard to tourist-recreational settlements.

From multiple sources, this Union was seen as an indirect way of undermining the Community of Garda, especially criticized for not knowing how, or wanting to, advance those initiatives and goals essential for the promotion of the Garda basin. “Regarding the ability to pursue the objectives for which it was established”, the four provincial presidents had signed this in the final document.

Initiatives and inactivity

In 1998, the “Interregional Authority for Garda” was established, again initiated by the Community of Garda, comprising the regions of Lombardia, Veneto, and the Autonomous Province of Trento. It currently remains in a state of substantial inactivity.

This meeting was followed, as initially planned, by two more: one held in Riva del Garda on October 29 of the same year, and another, the most recent, in Polpenazze on October 27, 1998. Since then, nothing more has occurred.

This inactivity was partly due to the main supporter of the project, the President of the Province of Verona, the Lega member Antonio Borghesi, who had to resign, leaving everything in limbo. Subsequently, even the Province of Brescia, which was not entirely convinced of the initiative, changed leadership, and to this day, no one talks about it anymore.

Current situation and stance

However, in Polpenazze, the Presidents approved the establishment of the Garda Provinces Union and presented the official logo.

Theoretically, the current presidency should belong to the President of the Province of Brescia because the statute provides for a rotating term of one year “by alphabetical rotation”, starting precisely from Polpenazze.

Andrea Cavalli was not fully aware of this whole issue, even though he was in the Giunta Lepidi, sitting with the opposition. He was opposed to this new institutional association because he believed it necessary to analyze and assess the actual operational capacity of the Community of Garda before moving to new promotional and institutional arrangements.

Cavalli appears to be determined to continue, should a new interprovincial meeting occur, despite the apparent destined failure of the Garda Provinces Union. This is despite the various costs incurred by all four provincial administrations that signed the will for its formation, which, in fact, exists and is regulated by a perfectly valid statute, for this new governing body of a hypothetical and never abandoned “Garda Region”.