No to minimum wage. No to Citizenship Income. Yes to the tax reform launched by the government. In the lair of the ‘enemy’ CGIL, at the trade union congress in Rimini, Giorgia Meloni takes the floor on stage – after the introduction of the secretary Maurizio Landini – and does not back down on any of the topics on her agenda. Moreover, you are aware that there is “nothing the government has done on which the CGIL is in agreement”. But that doesn’t mean she intends to escape the ‘body-to-body’: “I didn’t want to give up this occasion out of respect for the oldest work organization in our nation” and “in line with a path of discussion and listening that the government is bringing after you”. The prime minister repeats the word “comparison” several times, which “is necessary and useful. There are excellent reasons to confront candidly and with the reasons that each of us legitimately claims”, she begins from the podium. A “comparison” that “I don’t consider fake” but “productive even when we don’t agree”. On the contrary – this is the final invitation of the Prime Minister to the audience – “claim without discount your requests towards the government. We may not agree but those requests will always find a serious and unprejudiced hearing”.
Read also: Giorgia Meloni at the CGIL Congress, Sorgi applauds the premier’s speech
However, if there is an opening on the method, Meloni does not give up on anything on the merits. Starting with the minimum wage. “There is an emergency regarding wages”, he admits, but “we need to take a different path, betting everything on economic growth”, because “wealth is created by businesses and workers”. And therefore “I don’t think the introduction of the legal minimum wage is the most effective way, because I’m afraid it will become not an additional protection compared to collective bargaining but a substitute protection. Instead, I believe that we need to extend bargaining to sectors not covered, fight the pirate contracts, reduce the tax burden on labour”, are the premier’s proposals.
Read also: The CGIL restarts from Ferragni, Meloni: I didn’t think it was a metalworker
Same closure on Citizenship Income. Abolishing it “was a duty for those who are able to work”, claims Meloni, replying to Landini’s report which “asks us: what have the poor done to you? They have done nothing to us, this is why we do not want to keep them in a condition of poverty as did the basic income. The only way out of that condition is work”, the Prime Minister ruled, throwing a jab at the 5 Star Movement: “They told us that poverty could be abolished by decree” but “despite the decrees, poverty has not been abolished but has increased”. Provocation that is taken up by the leader of the M5S Giuseppe Conte, for which Meloni “has attacked the reforms of the 5 Star Movement for those in difficulty and our proposal for a legal minimum wage. If he comes to terms with it, we will continue to oppose his idea country: iron fist with the weakest, bow to the privileged!”.
Read also: Burst selfies with Meloni. But weren’t the relatives of Cutro’s victims “enraged”?
Not even on the tax reform, voted by the government yesterday, does the prime minister mention taking steps backwards. Indeed, the enabling bill was “hastily rejected by some”, she reproaches the CGIL. Instead, “we want to create a different relationship between the taxman and the taxpayer, to give greater guarantees against a State that has sometimes seemed oppressive. Which does not mean tolerating tax evasion” but “not to confuse the fight against tax evasion with the hunt for revenue” . Meloni seems to be betting a lot on this reform, because “we want to use the tax lever as a basic tool for economic growth”, he adds, explaining that “progressiveness is not lacking” but “the bracket of those falling under the first rate, the highest low, to include many employees within it”. For whom, as for the self-employed, a flat tax is envisaged “on salary increases compared to the years or the previous year”, continues the premier, thus summarizing the meaning of the new tax authority: “A substantial introduction of the recognition of the principle of merit because, as I see it, merit is the only, only, true, social lift that exists”, the right recognition to those who “roll up their sleeves, produce more, work more”. An incentive which, on the other hand, should also be extended to businesses: “We want to gradually lower IRES”, but only for those who invest and hire on permanent contracts in Italy”, concludes Meloni, because “the principle that I would like to try to implement is : the more you hire, the less taxes you pay”.