If institutional reforms are carried out, some solon always gets up to say that they are just a waste of time because the real priority of the country is the economy. But if you focus on economic reforms, the same thing happens and there are always those who remind you that without a state that works, economic reforms are completely ineffective. It is the festival of Italian benaltrism, according to which the problem is always another, as lucidly denounced by the late Luigi Spaventa who, speaking of certain fake pundits, used to say that they fly so high that they almost always fall down. In fact, what is benaltrismo if not a cloying form of immobilism and conservatism? "A congenital defect of our political system" wrote yesterday in the "Corriere della Sera" an intellectual of the finesse of Michael Salvati, economist and political scientist, director of the magazine “Il Mulino”. Salvati takes into consideration the three main criticisms received from the first approval of the Senate reform to arrive at the right conclusion that in reality economic reforms and institutional reforms are not alternatives to each other but are two sides of the same coin and of a single reforming plan and must therefore proceed in parallel even if in times that do not necessarily coincide.
La first objection that is moved to the reform of the Senate is that "the conception of democracy that the draft of electoral and constitutional reforms reveals is not acceptable in principle or is unsuitable for our country". Salvati comments: "It can be a serious criticism, if it doesn't push it to the point of scarcely credible caesaristic-authoritarian outcomes" which appear nothing short of imaginary when one considers that not only does the reform of the Senate require as many as four parliamentary passages but that it is in the end, the decisive word will be in the hands of the people with the confirmatory referendum. "In reality - continues Salvati - it is much more fearsome, if the reforms fail, a situation of stalemate and confusion and the noble reference to the great principles often hides a conservative attitude or electoral interests of small parties".
Second criticism: "Citizens, Europe, the markets want reforms that get the economy back on track, which allow it to return to growth and create jobs" while "constitutional reforms are not a response to these needs and "much more" is needed ”. Salvati observes: "Making the necessary reforms to start a machine that has been stuck for some time, of which a large number of parts need to be repaired and replaced, is not easy and a great political force is needed to oppose the resistance that the threatened interests put up". That's why today Matteo Renzi puts the emphasis on institutional reforms. Imagine what would happen in the Democratic Party and in Parliament today if Renzi – Salvati asked – decided to intervene with his nose on labor legislation, advocating, for example, the approval of the reforms proposed by Pietro Ichino? Consensus cannot be invented and must be built with patience.
Finally, the third criticism on the transversal coalition between the Government and Silvio Berlusconi's opposition which should support the reforms in Parliament. “More than justified criticism” comments Salvati who however asks: “But what is the alternative? Even those who today most criticize Renzi and his project have not always maintained that reforms of this magnitude cannot and must not be carried out against the opposition ”? Yes, but faced with such logical arguments, even this time there will be those who will say that the problem is "much different". Patience, let's face it and don't give masked conservatives a space they don't deserve. Most Italians ask for change and ask for reforms: it is to them that Renzi must answer.
