Giorgia Meloni feels comfortable six months after beginning to govern. Or, at least, it seems. The polls, although she has lost some points, are not bad. And the opposition continues trying to find a course that allows it to legitimately receive that name. So the prime minister can grant herself rhetorical and symbolic challenges like the one on April 25, when she signed up for historical revisionism on the day of the Liberation of Italy. Or to wrestle the unions on May Day, workers’ day, convening a Council of Ministers to approve a partial labor reform by decree without the consensus of the parties involved and liquidate the citizen income established by the Government of 5 Star Movement. “May Day does not belong exclusively to the left. I have also given answers, ”she launched before agreeing on them. “It is an act of arrogance,” replied Maurizio Landini, leader of the CGIL (Italian General Confederation of Labor), the country’s main union.
The worker’s party is still a very relevant moment in Italy. Rome cuts the streets of the center to celebrate a huge concert in front of the basilica of San Giovanni Laterano organized by the unions. The moment is usually also the scene of critical messages to the Executive in power and to the right. But Meloni has been trying to break that pattern for some time. Last year, in fact, he called the party’s programmatic conference that same day in Milan and launched a similar message: the world of work is not the patrimony of the left. What the reform says about him, however, has some nuances regarding rhetoric. Also her fight with the unions, who accused her of convening a Council of Ministers that “diseducates” on a day dedicated to the celebration. “If it’s like that, then so should the concert [de los sindicatos]she retorted in a strange twist.
Half of Italy was on the bridge. But Meloni summoned the main union leaders on Sunday night at the Chigi Palace, the seat of the Executive, to enlighten them on the main points of a decree law that contains reforms of the labor market and of the types of contracts, among other things. And although the unions appreciated some improvements that they valued, they maintained their reservations in many other aspects while waiting to see the final text, which was not shown to them. “Each comma can change the meaning” of legislation, they warned before leaving the meeting somewhat upset.
symbolic day
Meloni had promised many of these measures during the electoral campaign and the best time to do so, from a support point of view, is this first stretch of his term. The day chosen, however, does not seem to be a coincidence. The idea advanced in some Italian media is that the reform increases the salary of workers who earn up to 35,000 euros per year, reducing the so-called tax wedge, and facilitating access to unemployment benefits. Workers with children will also have tax reductions of up to 3,000 euros, a measure that seeks to encourage birth rates in the face of the enormous crisis that the country is going through.
Meloni will also liquidate the Citizenship Income, the system of subsidies approved as a star measure by the 5 Star Movement when it came to power in 2018. Today it is received in Italy by 1.05 million households, with an average amount of 581 euros (according to data Italian Social Security). In some southern regions, such as Campania, it reaches up to 12% of families. The initiative, however, also caused a huge hole in the State’s accounts and became a fertile ground for fraud. Now it should be replaced with other plans that avoid a social disaster in the south, a fishing ground for votes during the heyday of the M5S.
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The main problem, from the workers’ point of view, will be the extension of temporary contracts. The M5S, in what is known as the Dignity Decree, had limited this type of contract, establishing that they could only last 12 months, extendable for another year only in a few cases. The Meloni reform would expand the list of cases for which temporary renewal is allowed up to 36 months. The measures will be financed with the deficit deviation of 3,400 million euros in 2023 and 4,500 million in 2024 approved this week in Parliament, within the Economy and Finance Document (DEF), the economic strategy for the coming years.
The leader of the largest Italian trade union CGIL, Maurizio Landini, has announced that he is maintaining the upcoming demonstrations in various Italian cities. Because the main aspect of this reform is the reduction until the end of the year of the tax burden on contracts, from 6% for those under 35,000 euros per year and from 7% for those of 25,000 euros. On this, Landini acknowledged that “it goes in the direction” that the Government was asked to do, but the problem is that it is “a temporary measure, which has no perspective, which lasts only a few months.”
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