We return to talk about annuities to parliamentarians. In a climate of great controversy, the bill signed by Pd deputy Matteo Richetti arrives in the Chamber on Tuesday and could already receive the green light from Montecitorio on Wednesday, before moving on to the Senate. The goal is to get approval before the summer break.
It shouldn't be a problem, because the measure is supported by various political forces, starting with the 5 Star Movement. The majority is solid: there is no shortage of criticism of Richetti's text, which according to some will be accused of being unconstitutional, but a few months after the vote, no one wants to present themselves to voters as a defender of caste.
THE M5S-PD CONTROVERSY
The tussle then focuses on the authorship of the bill. “It is written Richetti, it is read Lombardi”, attack the M5S deputies of the Constitutional Affairs commission, recalling that last year the Grillina deputy presented a bill on the same issue. A provision which however – the 5 Stars accuse – at the time the Pd allowed to get bogged down in Parliament.
“I am very pleased that the grillini are joining, but they signed this law only a few weeks ago, while the text has been deposited since 2015 – Richetti defends himself – If they had wanted to be serious, because in these two years they have not joined to the battle leaving only 80 signatures on the proposal, all from the Democratic Party?”. As for the alleged similarities with the provision written by the M5S, the Pd deputy underlines that "the Lombardi proposal did not in the least affect the reduction of old annuities".
ABOLIZE ANNUITIES? IT WAS MADE IN 2011
It is not a detail, but the central point of the matter. Talking about the "abolition of annuities" is wrong, because annuities were already abolished by the Monti government at the end of 2011. The rules in force today provide that, at the end of the fifth year of their mandate, deputies and senators acquire the right to a pension calculated with the contribution method, i.e. based on the contributions actually paid (much less generous than the salary, linked to the last salaries received), to be collected upon completion of the 65th year of age. For each year in which more than the first five remain in office, deputies and senators can benefit from one year in advance on the payment of their pension. However, you are never allowed to cash your check before age 60.
The 5 Star Movement also contests this legislation, because in fact it still favors parliamentarians over citizens, especially as regards the age of accrual of the pension treatment.
WHAT THE RICHETI PROPOSAL PROVIDES FOR AND WHY IT RISKS THE CONSTITUTIONAL STOP
However, this is not what we have been talking about in recent weeks. The problem does not concern the parliamentarians currently in office, who will not receive the disproportionate checks of the past, but the former deputies and former senators who - based on the rules in force before 2012 - today collect very rich annuities (because they are calculated with the salary method), in the face of often very short assignments, in some cases lasting even a few hours. According to the latest data released by the INPS president Tito Boeri, these are 2600 former parliamentarians for a figure that reached 2016 million euros in 193, without considering the positions in the European Parliament and regional councils. Figures that certainly do not change the public finance accounts but which have a symbolic value.
This is where the specter of the Constitutional Court comes into play. Also in 2011, the Consulta rejected a paragraph of decree law 98 which introduced an equalization contribution for pensions over 90 thousand euros gross. A contribution that the Constitutional Court considered of a tax nature, therefore believing that it was "an unreasonable and discriminatory tax intervention against a single category of citizens". In other words, according to the Consulta, an arbitrary tax cannot be imposed that affects only pensioners, even if they are rich. At stake are, as they say, "acquired rights".
Now the Richetti-branded reform proposes something similar for former parliamentarians with annuities. The text requires that those checks be recalculated with the contributory method: it is therefore a retroactive rule that will affect the acquired right of a single category, just as in the case of the levy on golden pensions.
“There is a risk of unconstitutionality – admitted Richetti to Gr1 Rai – but I read in the Constitution that all citizens are equal before the law. And therefore everyone must have the same treatment, including parliamentarians. If the Court says that this law is unconstitutional, it will take responsibility for it. A preventive surrender, however, is not possible, otherwise Italy will never change”.
