In the CGIL Congress both Meloni and the opposition parties
The Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will participate in the CGIL National Congress to be held from 15 to 18 March in Rimini. This was reported by the secretary general, Maurizio Landini, specifying that the premier will speak on the 16th while the leaders of the opposition parties will be present the following day. “All the CGIL congresses – Landini explained during a press conference – have been invited to the presidents of the council in office, it happened that they accepted or not to be present; in 2014 and 2019 they decided not to participate, in 2010 Berlusconi decided to send Gianni Letta on behalf of the government. We have done nothing but confirm our practice”. Landini pointed out that the CGIL “has never had prejudices against any government: we calculate and measure ourselves against each government, then we can agree or not. Our organization together with the Uil in the month of December we proclaimed mobilization initiatives to demand a change. The fact that the president of the board has agreed to participate I consider it a positive fact, because it shows respect and consideration of an organization that represents thousands of people”.
A congress to present specific political proposals and indicate a new social and economic model. Thus the general secretary of the CGIL, Maurizio Landini explained to the press the meaning of the 19th national congress of the CGIL, which will be held at the Pala Congressi in Rimini from 15 to 18 March. Four days of debates, speeches, comparisons on all the problems of the moment: from precariousness to the renewal of contracts, from the reduction of working hours to tax reform, from paid training to the digital and ecological transition, from pension reform to that of the taxman , from differentiated autonomy to the law on representation, from women’s rights to war in Ukraine.
“During the congress we will make precise proposals on each topic – underlined Landini – because the union’s job is to respond to people’s needs: we want to deal with all the political forces, of the government and of the opposition, because we think that the union, in its autonomy, compares itself with everyone on an equal footing”. And in fact in Rimini a meeting with Carlo Calenda (Action) Giuseppe Conte (M5S), Nicola Fratoianni (Italian Left), Elly Schlein (Pd) is scheduled for March 16 and the next day, at 12, there will be the speech of the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Naturally there will be representatives of civil society, from Don Ciotti (Libera), to Andrea Riccardi (Community of Sant’Egidio), to continue with Giovanni Maria Flick, president emeritus of the Constitutional Court, Gianfranco Pagliarulo, president of Anpi and Gilbert F. Houngbo, director general of Oil. And again, among the guests, Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, president of the CEI and the Iranian activist Pegah Moshir Pour. As always, there will also be representatives of Italian and international trade unions.
The CGIL Congress will indicate a new social model
“Let’s start from the fact that we are in an extraordinary situation, in the presence of an unprecedented democratic crisis,” said Landini. “The needs of people who need to work to live must return to the center of union and political action by governments and parliaments”. According to the CGIL leader, it is necessary to broaden representation, especially towards young people “so that everyone has the protection and rights to live in dignity”. The central theme is “which society we want to build: the goal is the transformation of the social and economic model” a starting from the overcoming of precariousness. It means “changing the wrong laws and affirming that entry to work must be based on stability”. Then there’s the issue of wages “because you’re working poor and half the country doesn’t make ends meet”. Attention must therefore be paid to the renewal of employment contracts and to a “true, radical tax reform, to build a new citizenship pact based on the enlargement of the tax base”, recovering resources to make public investments in health care and to relaunch the development of the country”. With respect to the tax reform hypotheses being circulated, Landini explained that “from what little is understood, the union’s proposal goes in the opposite direction to that which the government is discussing. But before expressing an opinion on a proposal – he specified – I want to know it and concretely understand what it is, precisely because we are not prejudicial. But nothing was presented to us, only drafts are circulating and I don’t discuss drafts but concrete things “
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