Who knows if on October 7th, at the conclusion of the General Assembly of the Cgil, Maurizio Landini he uttered the fateful phrase "the die is cast“. In fact, on that day, the Cgil has having crossed the Rubicon which separates the Trade Union from politics; or rather, trade union politics from politics tout court as per article 49 of the Constitution (“All citizens have the right to freely associate in parties to contribute with democratic methods to determine national politics”).
As can be read in the final motion, Cgil expresses itself across the board not only as a political subject, a role that a large trade union organization also plays, but like a force which supports and fuels the political/party opposition to the current government.
Foreign Policy: The Cgil's Positions
Moreover, the October 7th was a “special day” for various reasons that the Assembly addressed in a specific document which underlines: "this year's World Day fell one year after the atrocious terrorist attack by Hamas and the outbreak of the war in Gaza, in which tens of thousands of civilians were killed, more than half of them children. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine continues to cause terror and destruction, conflicts in the world are constantly increasing and the nuclear threat is becoming more and more real". Up to this point we are in the presence of a summary reconstruction of reality, then we move on to the international policy assessments, the Assembly: "condemns the abstention of the Italian Government on the UN resolution of 18 September 2024 and the decision of the European Parliament to allow the use of Western weapons on Russian territory. Instead, we ask that Italy and the EU recognize the state of Palestine, commit to promoting a two-state solution and a de-escalation path that safeguards human lives and puts international law at its centre.”
As for the responsibilities, the Assembly takes refuge in the opinion of the International Court of Justice according to which Israel must take “all measures in its power to prevent and punish direct and public incitement to commit a genocide” as well as the contents of the UN resolution, namely: a permanent ceasefire, an end to illegal settlements in the occupied territories within the next 12 months, a request to member states to refrain from engaging in economic or commercial relations with Israel within the occupied territories, as well as the supply or transfer of weapons and to allow the full entry of humanitarian aid". To make sure nothing is left out, "strong condemnation is expressed for the repeated Israeli government attacks towards the UN, as well as the decision to define the Secretary General as persona non grata, to whom we express full support and solidarity. Finally, there is no lack of solidarity towards the mass mobilizations that have taken place in recent days, including that of October 5, because "to prohibit demonstrations, as the police stations did on the instructions of the Government, means trampling on constitutional rights and deliberately giving space for action and enormous visibility to violent fringes".
Domestic politics: criticisms and referendums
But the signal of the genetic mutationemerges from the analysis and the domestic policy decisions. We take for granted the totally critical representation of the European context, victim of austerity policies (how then to define the Ngeu?) and of the situation of our country (of which no reference is made, for example, to the dynamics of employment, to the liveliness of exports and to the crisis of the labor market on the supply side, not only of quality, to an important first semester with regard to the results of collective bargaining, to an increase in stable work and a reduction in fixed-term work) where the devaluation of people who work, contracts based on exploitation, cascading subcontracts, precariousness that continue to produce death and accidents are rampant. Hence the recall to the 4 popular referendumsagainst layoffs, precarious work and for safety in contracts.
But there is also one trespassing on institutional issues because "the referendums on differentiated autonomy and citizenship will be at the center of a single large mobilization campaign that will have to engage the entire Organization: the confederal and category leadership group, delegates, activists of the retired leagues, with the goal of reaching and convincing over 25 million voters to vote 6 YES, and to reaffirm - through democratic participation - freedom at work and in society, social justice and a different model of democracy and development".
Accusations of authoritarian turn in government
An alleged crime is then reported authoritarian turn in progress: “the authoritarian nature of the policies of this Government has been confirmed, once again, after the attacks on the right to strike, with all its repressive logic in Security Bill, voted in recent days in the Chamber and now in the Senate, which seeks to eliminate the right and freedom of people to express their dissent, introduce new criminal offenses against those who occupy streets, public or private spaces, continue to criminalise immigration and also limit trade union initiatives in defence of rights and jobs. On the one hand, punitive measures are introduced for facts that arise in contexts of hardship, on the other, abuse of office is decriminalised, a crime that is a sign of mafia infiltration. The CGIL immediately mobilised to ask for its withdrawal together with the UIL, the students, and all democratic associations and will continue to oppose it”.
The budget maneuver and the differences with the Cisl
The agenda then reviews the mobilizations and strikes already scheduled for the next few days, but believes that it is necessary to move towards a general mobilization because "the Structural Budget Plan approved by the Government, once again without any discussion with the social partners or involvement of the country, despite it being an act that will bind economic and social policies for the next 7 years in the name of a return to austerity recipes, quantifiable in 13 billion in cuts every year, as defined by the new Stability Pact approved in Europe also by the Italian government". If we compare these assessments with those expressed by the Cisl, during the hearing at the Chamber, it is natural to ask how it is possible that two large trade union organisations, both called upon to face the same problems and to represent the same interests andexpress judgments and draw such divergent conclusions.
For the CISL they are certainly positive commitments that the Plan assumes with respect to the reduction of the contribution wedge and the transition to three IRPEF rates: "the Government confirms and makes structural the effects of the tax wedge on income from employment up to 35 thousand euros and the merging of the IRPEF rates into three brackets already in force this year". Especially if, as can be deduced from what the Government has stated, the problem of thethreshold effect at 35.000 euros, as repeatedly requested by CISL. The commitment made in the Plan for the next Budget Law to provide funds for the renewal of public employment contracts and for measures in favor of the family and birth rate. CISL gives an equally positive opinion to the commitment made on health expenditure where it is stated that "the Government undertakes to safeguard the level of health expenditure by ensuring that it grows above that of the net expenditure aggregate".
Then the confederation of via Po touches some real issues: “One cannot fail to notice, however, that missing in the Plan l'indication of the origin of the necessary resources to finance these measures, some of which (public employment contracts, measures in favor of the family) still need to be quantified. In this respect, we will therefore have to wait for the Budget Law to be issued soon, for which a participatory process by stakeholders is hoped for. Questions remain on the full implementation of the PNRR objectives, which are fundamental for the growth of GDP in 2026, as indicated in the validation letter of the UPB, for which the CISL urges a decisive acceleration”.
The observations of the Bank of Italy and the UPB
These are the same r, by the way.reserves expressed by the Bank of Italy and by the 'Parliamentary Budget Office that is, that the objectives set by the government in the medium-term PSB are too ambitious. The representative of the Bank of Via Nazionale heard by the Commission clearly stated: "First of all, to finance part of the new maneuver, the Plan uses the margin determined by the higher revenues now expected for 2024, with the implicit assumption that they are entirely permanent. Furthermore, as highlighted by the Government itself, a slightly less favorable macroeconomic scenario would be enough (for example, an unexpected increase of 100 basis points in the yields on newly issued government bonds) to make it more difficult to achieve the Government's objective of bringing net debt below 2026% of GDP in 3". And we all know that a gust of adverse wind is enough to determine that eeffect on the spread.
Of the same tenor the UPB observations who expressed concerns about the dynamics of investments and the PNRR. "Investments - it is written in the report submitted to the Commission - represent the most uncertain variable in the macroeconomic framework. In the medium term, some critical issues could emerge from the evolution of projects financed with the NGEU program, especially considering the concentration of interventions in the next two years, which could cause supply bottlenecks”.
How do you see the The path of the budget maneuver is not a triumphal march, quite the opposite: with the current level of debt and with the need to reduce the deficit to increase the primary surplus precisely to reduce the debt, it is useless to draw assessments that do not take into account the complexity of the situation as if the country did not have political and structural constraints and rules to abide by. Or are the Patriots of Orban and Salvini right? Certain slogans are fine in rallies, but they do not contribute in any way to solving the problems.
When I was a young trade unionist, people laughed at an older colleague who, in the immediate post-war period, at a rally during a company dispute, addressed the workers and called their boss: "When we ate unseasoned macaroni (maccheroni), he ate them well-seasoned." Are we still there?
