Before the departure of Prime Minister Monti for the long journey to the East, the government obtained the twelfth vote of confidence on the "Grow Italy" decree. The Berlusconi government lived for three years and a few months on 53 votes of confidence. The mission to the East, after those crowned with great success in the City and Wall Street, aims to gain the trust of Asian investors, who represent the emerging economic powers.
In Cernobbio, just before leaving for the mission, Susanna Camusso had a nice little show, who greeted President Monti with the phrase "please don't tell investors that now you can come to Italy because it's possible to fire people" , obtaining a reassuring answer: "don't worry, I will use other arguments". It is a real pity that during the trip the Premier let slip, or intentionally sent messages to the parties, claiming "I have the trust of the Italians, the parties don't", an undoubted fall in style for those who at the time of the presentation of their government to the Chambers and the request for trust, he had repeatedly emphasized the fundamental role of politics and the will to put himself at the service of the country and then turn his hand back to politics, a concept repeated several times on the occasions for the presentation of government measures Salva Italia, Cresci Italia , Labor market reform. The pundits of the various alignments indulged themselves in commenting on the "message from the Far East", with the component of fascination that that world has always exercised, by the Premier who, moreover, in the letter published by Corriere on March 31st claims to have been misunderstood and tries to mitigate the small storm aroused.
Since the economic crisis broke out, it has been repeated that, in addition to mitigating the effects of the same on the reduction of income and the increase in unemployment, it is necessary to "recover the trust" of investors, entrepreneurs, employees, social bodies intermediate. It is added that, to do this, concrete signs and behaviors are needed to help Italians "regain confidence" in the institutions, in the function of the markets (by some considered saving), in a new policy, in themselves.
With reference to the negotiation for the new labor legislation, at the beginning the government and the social partners declared "confidence" in the possibility of reaching a satisfactory balance for all the parties, later they accused each other of having betrayed the trust, finally, at least a part of the world of work has declared itself dissatisfied with the solution proposed by the government with regard to art. 18. It would be simplistic to think that this position belongs only to CGL or FIOM which "pulls the jacket at Camusso", neglecting the dissatisfaction that emerges among many employees of many companies that present situations of economic difficulty, some objective and dependent on situations structural aspects of the sector, others caused by errors by entrepreneurs and managers (therefore not attributable to low productivity and high labor costs), others for which the doubt of "instrumental use" has not been dispelled. The response given by Minister Fornero and Premier Monti to these perplexities at the press conference to present the reform was summarized in the following terms: "we will ensure that there are no abuses", which means "have faith". Apart from the fact that, in the best of hypotheses, given the fibrillation of the parties and the government in recent days, the current executive will last until 2013 and it is not clear what guarantees it can give on the application of legislation of this kind, it is possible make a very simple consideration. Instead of asking for a generic "confidence in the application of the legislation" relating to Article 18, the government could and could better specify and include in the legislation the tools with which it intends to "monitor and supervise" the application and to "prevent or suppress cases of abuse".
Since statements are never neutral, certainly the decisive and dry statement by Prime Minister Monti according to which "no one should delude himself that he can change the reform in its essential elements" (the reference to article 18 was evident, since all the social parties agreed and appreciated other parts of the provision) on the one hand it must have reassured some (investors, entrepreneurs, supporters of maximum flexibility on exit to favor entry into the labor market) but on the other it certainly did not reassure neither in times nor in ways the majority of those who could suffer a distorted use of flexibility. Moreover, the reform presented as an incentive and tool to "give confidence to young people" involves the undisputed risks of "removing confidence" from a large part of people with respect to an economic model that seems increasingly to favor workers protected by art. 18, but the lobbies that have led to the weakening of the liberalization provisions, which govern spreads, which move companies and plants from one country to another in a few weeks, which move huge capitals generating global imbalances.
It really leads to the conclusion that today there is a "discreet charm of trust" which, however, is often interpreted as a request for trust in others, without making commitments for oneself. Rather than trust, it seems to me that in many of the cases mentioned above, acts of faith in someone's reason are being asked. Then I remember the popular saying, which I heard in my youth, according to which "faith is given to God, trust to men, under control". Since in the speed society controls risk arriving when the troubles are done, "closing the door when the oxen have escaped", it would be desirable to ask for trust together with the proposal of tools to reduce the risk that it is betrayed.
