“Retrograde propaganda from the right”
Benedetta Scuderi, A 32-year-old consultant for corporate sustainability services, she is the candidate of the Green and Left Alliance for the European elections in the North-West constituency and co-spokesperson for the Young European Greens. For years you have been fighting for climate and social justice, gender equality and the right to housing. Affaritaliani.it interviewed her on the eve of the European elections (in the photo with Elina Pinto, European Greens).
Scuderi, you tackled the electoral campaign by traveling on public transport, what signal do you want to give?
It is a choice that testifies to a path, in continuity with the battles made so far as an activist and co-spokesperson of the European Young Greens. Now, with the elections on 8 and 9 June, we have the opportunity to bring concrete solutions to Europe. I am thinking of our 200 billion plan for decarbonisation. A figure that includes 30 billion for Italy and which is obtained with a minimum contribution from the very large assets, those between 4 and 5 million euros. In this way, Europe supports a just transition, which does not burden businesses and citizens. Public transport, together with rail transport, is the model on which to base the new mobility, increasing railway routes and investing in electricity also through the reconversion of skills and company structures. In Italy we need to take a different direction, but the retrograde propaganda of Meloni and Salvini wants everything to remain as it is while the world moves forward, making us lose ground. Instead, we work in Europe so that Italy is ready.
How can the ecological transition be reconciled with needs that, especially on the industrial level, very often go in the opposite direction?
With a real industrial transition. In Italy our industrial vocation is decreasing due to poor planning and increasingly strong delocalisation. The ecological transition can also be a great opportunity in this sense. There is an industry with a green vocation that already represents excellence. I am thinking for example of Lombardy, which stands out in the sector of reuse and recycling of raw materials for renewables and batteries and in technological innovation, or of the potential that Piedmont could have in sustainable mobility. The EU must plan and invest in this direction, with a European industrial transition plan that puts the peculiarities of the territories at the center and invests in research, innovation and skills transition. Especially for women, young people and the most discriminated or vulnerable groups, rebuilding an industrial sector that looks to the future. On the other hand, we must abandon models such as intensive farming, which are bad for animals, people and the environment. This is why we will push for a total stop to public subsidies for these farms, in favor instead of the ecological transition in agriculture and regenerative and organic agricultural practices.
In many areas of Europe nationalism is taking hold, how do you respond?
Our Europe is not that of Nations, but a political Union of people and rights. Nationalisms similar to those of Meloni and Salvini take us backwards and too often risk questioning the rule of law as is happening in Orban’s Hungary, of which there are dangerous hints in our country too. In the EU, fundamental decisions are made for our lives, we must strengthen democracy and participation even further. For example, eliminating for some decisions the veto power that individual states have within the Council and which often hinders important progress, giving more powers to the European Parliament and aiming to achieve a federal Europe. Thus, the relationship between European institutions and citizens is also strengthened.
In your program you talk about feminism, but how is it transformed into concrete decisions in Europe?
The first: to include the right to abortion in the European Fundamental Charter. Furthermore, we are fighting to ensure that the crime of rape is foreseen at EU level, meaning rape is any relationship without consent. In terms of gender justice, then, our proposal is clear: we need mandatory parental leave of equal duration for both parents.
#Insert #abortion #Charter #Intensive #farming #stop #subsidies
