In the immediate post-war period, the boys of my generation were given a chessboard to play ''Checkers'', strictly on Epiphany. The back side usually contained a platform with a few squares, each within a larger one, connected on each side by a segment that allowed the pieces to move. The game was called ''Schiera'' and consisted in placing three pieces in a row: which gave the right to ''eat'' a friend's piece. Therefore, when it was time to line up one's own checkers, one had to be ready to insert one between two of the opponent's.
What is the meaning of this childhood reminiscence? Simple. In the'pension meeting of December 20, Mario Draghi played ''Schiera'' with the union leaders and – without them realizing it – managed to interrupt their game, inserting a pawn in the right place. In truth it was not a matter of a piece of plastic (or of wood as in my day) but of a concept that is expressed through one word: sustainability.
Affirm that any intervention on pensions must allow the sustainability of the system is how to reserve a veto right on any proposal that does not meet this condition. We don't know what Draghi and the union leaders said to each other during an interview that ended in a short time. But we have heard what the premier said about the commitments undertaken at the end-of-year press conference: “The pension measures introduced in the maneuver – recalled Draghi – are of a transitory nature, so that there was a need for a broader reform seemed normal to me and for this reason the table” with the unions “has begun. My commitment is to maintain a system that is sustainable, the constraint is not to question this sustainability of the contribution system".
Of course, Draghi continued by summarizing the titles of the claims of the CGIL, CISL and UIL: “greater flexibility on the way out; how to organize, an open problem, a system that guarantees a certain level of pensions for young people and for those who have precarious activity; what can be done to get back on the road to supplementary pensions; how do you avoid being punished” who continues to work once retired. Commendable projects to be pursued in any case in a logic of sustainability. How can you imagine that these solutions entail the cancellation of the Fornero reform it is the fruit of the union leaders' imagination.
A reform, even before being a set of rules, consists of a strategic direction. And the line indicated by the Prime Minister is clearly in continuity with that underlying the 2011 intervention. If Draghi intends to strengthen the calculation of contributions (also extending it to the quotas in the salary system) for those who want to retire early, Elsa Fornero can only be I agree, because in this way we carry on what you started (the pro rata application of the contribution calculation to everyone starting from 2012).
It's true, share 102 it is an objectively temporary solution; some very important questions remain open to which an answer will need to be provided. I am referring to the automatic coupling to the increase in life expectancy of the now blocked personal data and social security contributions requirements, until the end of 2024 and 2026 respectively.
Then there are other conditions to be respected, within the framework of the commitments undertaken in the PNRR. Anyone who reads that document carefully realizes that, as a preliminary step, even before implementing the objectives and reforms whose implementation is conditional on the payment of the loan installments (we are awaiting the second installment), it is necessary for our country to adapt to the Commission's recommendations also from previous years. It is therefore appropriate to read what is written on page 25 (later summarized on page 27) of the PNRR voted by Parliament: ''Finally, it is required to fully implement past pension reforms in order to reduce the weight of old-age pensions in public spending and create margins for other social spending and growth-friendly public spending''.
According to the EU, this is the ''social sustainability'' that Italy needs. Then I am not – fortunately – familiar with the union leaders; I wonder, however, how they could have imagined that Draghi is willing to turn inside out - to meet their "arsenic and old lace" - a reform that - albeit with its limitations - is appreciated at all latitudes. I will be answered that Draghi's future at Palazzo Chigi is uncertain, as he himself confirmed in the press conference. Adding, however, that even in the absence of the "grandfather at the service of the institutions" there will always be a government committed to carrying on the PNRR. In recent times there has been a quantum leap in relations with Europe: those who go wrong should not expect only a cumbersome infringement procedure; in Brussels they close the box in his face. And they throw away the key.
