Consistency isn't always a virtue, especially if one persists in error (as our Latin teachers taught us). It follows that a person's return to the right path should be greeted like the return of the prodigal son, ordering the servants to slaughter the fatted calf.
This majority, in the parties that compose it, had several errors to be forgiven, both for the parties that had experience in government and those that had spent the legislatures in opposition. Yet, once in power, the center-right majority was pay attention to the accounts public, to the point of becoming to accuse of the restoration of the austerity policy.
Pensions as a test of credibility
In particular, this rigor in public finances has been expressed in the budget laws in the field of pensions, where the government Meloni Not only did he trash the proposals contained in the coalition's electoral program, but – albeit often clumsily – he dismantled many of the traps inherited from previous governments, discouraging the use of those early exits that had characterized the politics of the last decade.
It was to be expected that the opposition (at least those parties that had governed during that decade) – whose leaders, during the 2022 election campaign, had gone to the European Chancelleries to raise the alarm about a possible victory for the center-right led by Giorgia Meloni, which would have destabilized the budgetary policies of the entire Union – had welcomed the active repentance of their opponents.
The accusation of inconsistency
Instead they have been rebuked for their inconsistency, accusing them of betraying the electorate and of not keeping promises contained in the program. It seemed strange that the opposition was concerned about the majority electorate, who did not seem to care about the government's backtracking.
Then, finally, after the presentation of the resolution with the first signature of Clare Braga, with the support of all the group leaders of the Campo largo, the mystery was revealed: those who had changed their opinion were the left-wing oppositions, in particular the Pd, who did not hesitate to support the request contained in an agenda demanded by the League as a condition for voting on the budget law, arriving, without shame and with record-breaking nerve, to commit the Government – in the Braga resolution – "to adopt initiatives aimed at reviewing, from the first available measure, the decision to increase the age requirements for access to a pension and to eliminate the periodic review mechanism."
Or to throw the mechanism away of indexing which all institutional authorities deem essential to guarantee a minimum level of sustainability of the work pension.
The missed opportunity on the minimum wage
In truth, the opposition would have a sensational opportunity to hold the government accountable, especially in these weeks when the floods are intensifying. of the Milan prosecutor's office in the field of law work, placing food delivery companies under judicial control in order to open a de facto negotiation – based on a non-existent and improper power of substitution – in favor of the workers.
Parliament approved the enabling law on fair remuneration which the government passed as an alternative to the bill on the legal minimum wage supported by the opposition; but the legislative decrees are missing. The opposition, instead of holding the government accountable for its shortcomings, continues to agitate for a €9 per hour wage.
Here are the key points of the legislation referred to in law n. 144/2025:
- There is no fixed hourly rate required by law.
- The law aims to strengthen collective bargaining by identifying the "most widely applied" contracts as the main reference.
- The Ministry of Labor is responsible for setting minimum wages for sectors not covered by the National Collective Labor Agreement (CCNL) or for sectors with expired contracts.
- Measures to combat contractual dumping are envisaged with the aim of combating unfair competition on labor costs.
Between promises and responsibilities
A vast program, General de Gaulle would say. There's probably material for Dante's fraudulent advice: "a long promise, a short wait," since the law aims to resolve all collective bargaining issues in one fell swoop. But an opposition that does its job has the right to demand accountability for the government's promises incorporated into a law. Especially since Law No. 144/2025 was the culmination of a long debate on the minimum wage that repeatedly saw the government in difficulty, from which it emerged precisely thanks to that bill, which then continued its process until approval.
