Vendola and Fassina “want to preserve, for noble reasons and in good faith, a world of work that is overprotected compared to the conditions of other countries. Which side am I on? I am in favor of a Europe that fights for even more advanced protection of workers. I am for reforms that create more jobs and for Italy to be more competitive“. This is the latest position taken by outgoing premier Mario Monti, who spoke this morning on the program "Radio anch'io" (Rai1).
In answering questions from Pd secretary Pier Luigi Bersani, who asked what role the professor will have in Europe, Monti underlined that he did not see any hostility from the democratic leader. But then comes a clarification: “I allow myself to be very immodest. I think I'm known for what I've done in Europe, as commissioner and in these difficult 13 months as Premier. I believe I have my place in the opinion of fellow European leaders and if I were to still be prime minister, I would be a member of the European Council with a certain incisiveness, enormously more important than knowing which political family I would sit in”.
Monti pointed out that within the electoral movement that is being created around him there are people who belong to different political families represented in the European Parliament: EPPs, liberals, "and even some from the PSE".
As for relations with Germany, Monti explained that at the beginning of his mandate at Palazzo Chigi "I skated on a lake with a thin layer of ice", i.e., metaphorically speaking, "our public finance could jump at any moment 'other”, and yet “from day one I explained to Merkel and others that there was also some overall flaw in the eurozone. From there with Germany, sometimes in dialectics, we managed to put the accounts in order and Germany managed to let itself be persuaded, sometimes by heavy pedagogical action”.
Finally, a few digs to reply to the attacks of Silvio Berlusconi, who “used against me inappropriate weapons, such as family values. This speaks for itself. I consider fundamental ethical values. I hate political parties that sometimes clumsily use ethical values, often disregarded by them, in everyday life as a weapon or hatchet against rivals. I am thinking of some exponents of the PDL“. As for the hypothesis of a commission to shed light on the fall of the Berlusconi government, “I find it an extravagant, belated, interesting idea. Welcome."
