In the difficult and composite journey that leads from the decree law to a law of conversion, many things end up lost in translation. This is the case of the decree on liberalization which in the form in which it appears today, entrusted to the rapporteurs Simona Vicari (Pdl) and Filippo Bubbicco (Pd), after strikes, meetings and endless rewrites, as far as taxis are concerned, it appears far from the text approved by the government and much closer to the demands of taxi drivers.
The most controversial liberalization, and also the most visibly contested, after the protests that paralyzed half of Italy and endless rewrites, in fact, runs the risk of resulting in a substantial stalemate.
The speakers, and their respective parties, in fact, have been brought to an agreement from the amendment proposed by the Pd senator Paolo Giaretta in the industry commission, which provides that the number of licenses and tariff levels are not established by the Transport Authority, as initially stated by article 36 of the decree, but by the municipalities and, therefore, by the mayors, which, as is known, are much more sensitive than the corporate pressures of the category, thus reducing, and not just a little, the potential for opening up the market contained in the original standard.
Thus, even Minister Passera would be denied who, no later than two weeks ago, had denied the possibility that the decision-making power on licenses could return to the mayors, affirming the opportunity for a change in this sense, while the Transport Authority would remain relegated to a merely supervisory role in this sense, with the possibility of expressing a non-binding opinion and only then, in the event of default by the mayors, to propose a receivership.
Still the same amendment it also provides that the new licenses are all put into competition, eliminating duplicate licenses at no cost to existing owners.
The soft line won, therefore, the taxi drivers won. The feeling that remains, bitterish, is that of a sharp step backwards, of a retracing of its steps by the government, towards more lenient advice, and by a category, that of taxi drivers, which for the umpteenth time has been able to exploit , in an attempt to remain anchored to its privileges, the weapons at its disposal (strikes and traffic blocks) to successfully penetrate the structural weaknesses of a system and the rifts within the majority, obtaining (only for himself) a new victory. Indulging the lobbies, the major parties think they can gain electoral support, but forget that it's not just the taxi drivers who vote.
