The Italian success at the European summit with the promotion of Federica Mogherini to the new Lady Pesc crowns a week of renewed activism by the Renzi government, which in the last few days has also approved the Unlock-Italy, albeit much reduced in numbers, and the awaited reform of the justice and promises school reform on Wednesday.
Renzi is convinced that he can really change Italy in a thousand days and tomorrow he will present the chronology of the reforms. Anyone who has the fate of our country at heart can only cross their fingers and hope that the premier's ambitious program will be successful, with all due respect to those whom Renzi rightly mocks like owls and rose hips. However, one cannot fail to agree with the wise considerations made yesterday at the CL meeting in Rimini by the CEO of Fiat, Sergio Marchionne, a winning manager and lifelong supporter of Renzi, when he appreciated the premier's courage and confirmed the his support, but he also realistically recalled that few results have been seen so far and that the path to get out of Italian stagnation is very long.
Renzi has put a lot of irons into the fire in these first few months at Palazzo Chigi and has never lost faith in bringing the country to a turning point despite the results that come from the economy are disturbing to say the least: not only the 80 euros have so far not given the hoped-for results in relaunching consumption but, for the first time in over fifty years, Italy finds itself in deflation and a recession at the same time while unemployment is growing visibly and bringing an entire generation.
In the conditions in which Italy finds itself, it is right to intervene at 360 degrees on all the sore points to start a recovery and modernization program that we should have implemented for years, but not all reforms have the same weight and the same importance. There are taxes to be reduced, there is bureaucracy to be reformed, there is the labor market to be revived, there are tangible and intangible infrastructures to be relaunched: in short, the field is vast. But reforms, as it would have been said once with regard to actions, are not only counted but above all weighed. Mario Draghi said it clearly to Renzi in the Umbrian meeting a few weeks ago: it is perfectly fine to initiate reforms in all fields where the country's backwardness is crying out for revenge, but the real priority terrains on which the Renzi government is expected to face the decisive test and on which will be judged are mainly two, namely the spending review and the labor market. It is on this basis that Europe and the financial markets will evaluate whether Italy can do it and whether Renzi has really taken the long-awaited path of reform. And it is on this that one can realistically hope for the application flexibility of the European rules.
Spending and the labor market. Without a selection and a sharp cut in unproductive public spending, there is no hope of actually reducing taxes on labor and companies by the amount needed to revive the economy, but above all, there is no hope of starting to dismantle that mass of interest transversal and perverse that has blocked the country for too long and that often finds unthinkable supporters on the right and on the left, as Marchionne recalled yesterday. The spending review is the first of Renzi's litmus tests and the premier knows it and he also knows that in this field fireworks count for little but only the results are worth it. Courage.
The other challenge, extremely uncertain, which dominates the path of the Renzi government is that of the rules of the labor market. The boom in unemployment should have opened the eyes of the whole country and made it clear to everyone that the current rules have failed and that without greater flexibility, which is by no means synonymous with precariousness, we will go nowhere. Instead of getting lost in the age-old debate on Article 18, Renzi was the first prime minister on the left to say it's time to revise the entire workers' statute. A signal that only fools have not understood but which is fundamental. Provided that it is translated into deeds in a reasonably short time. Yesterday Minister Poletti said that the Jobs Act will cross the finish line within the year. Considering that institutional and electoral reforms and other reforms are also on Parliament's table, approving the Jobs Act and the new rules on the labor market under the banner of greater flexibility would be a good result if, however, the steps forward are not watered down during their journey. Europe and the markets judge us.
Of course, in a country of useless soloists and unbearable trombones, it's quick to demand changes in spending and work, but then we have to deal with the harsh law of politics as the complicated reform of the Senate has highlighted. The difference between bar talk and politics is all here: the former leave the time they find while the latter must produce facts and changes. However, politics is the art of the possible and Renzi has demonstrated the pragmatism that a modern leader needs. But now it's time to score. Hic Rhodus, hic salta.
