After days of controversy over the case of telephone messages sent by INPS to recipients of the basic income with the announcement of suspension or interruption of the measure, the cancellation of the anti-poverty support created by the Five Star-Lega government arrives in the Chamber of Deputies and splits it making it the scene of a very tough clash between the government and the opposition. On the one hand there are accusations of “wanting to split the country” (M5S) and of “starting the fire” (Avs), on the other of “inciting former income recipients against the government” (FdI).
It matters time
The occasion is the intervention of the Minister of Labor Marina Calderone at the question time, during which she herself attacks: “This government employs every hour of its time to reduce the discomfort on which someone blows to build dissent”. And then she explains: «There are 112,000 families who receive the basic income and who can be activated on the Labor Pact, from 1 September they will be able to take advantage of active policy measures for job training». She rejects the accusations: “There is no regulatory uncertainty or abandonment of the families that perceived it or of the territories”. But the minister fails to convince those who listen to her. Neither inside the Chamber, where the oppositions are asking for a rethink, nor outside, in the squares, especially in Naples, where those who have lost their support make their anger felt.
The appeal of M5s and Pd
At Calderone, the leader of the Five Stars Giuseppe Conte, who established the income as premier, asks to “stop this massacre” and attacks: “There is anger, social confusion, you are leaving social workers, Municipalities alone and you are the solely responsible. You are knowingly splitting the country: after 8 months you have done nothing, you are the setters». And yet he also launches an appeal to the government: “Think again, convene a council of ministers, stop, send a text message to all these people and apologize.” And his party files a motion in the Chamber to restore the provision of basic income “with necessity and urgency” for the 169,000 families who received the suspension telephone message.
Even the Democratic Party is asking the government to take a step back by proposing an immediate decree to give Regions and Municipalities a way to organize themselves and reduce the impact of the suspensions. “There is a problem of timing – says Maria Cecilia Guerra -: three months of nothing for those who are in serious social hardship and the government instead has defined them as employable but they are not, the desperation that has exploded in recent days is not the fault of the imprudent text message from INPS, but the fact that there is no response from the government”.
The attack of unions and associations
The CGIL attacks the “disappointing lack of responses from minister Calderone” and in the meantime asks for an extension of the measure for everyone at least until the end of the year and confirms “the mobilization not to leave those who are worse off alone and to change the wrong policies of the executive”. The Uil calls for its restoration while the Cisl with Luigi Sbarra invokes “a great deal of responsibility: the Government, Regions and Municipalities must collaborate to ensure adequate management of this transition”. And the Libera association warns: “Deleting the basic income not only leaves more than 600,000 people without an alternative, it not only violates the obligation of the Constitution referred to in Article 3, but also exposes them to the blackmail of the mafia welfare system”.