Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has never made a secret of being devoted to Padre Pio and it is probably by hoping for the miracles of his fellow countryman that he counts on dribble the half failure of the Citizenship Income, one of the symbolic measures of the Government that presided in the company of the League and the Five Stars.
Answering Thursday's question time in the Senate, Conte literally climbed onto straws to defend the Citizenship Income which has given some relief in mitigating poverty in the wake of the Inclusion Income of the Renzi and Gentiloni governments but which it is absolutely bankrupt in the creation of new jobs.
Faced with the disappointing Citizenship Income, so dear to the grillini and their former leader Luigi Di Maio, the least that one would have expected from the premier who signed that reform would have been some self-criticism. But this is obviously not in the strings of the Prime Minister, already surprisingly indicated by the secretary of the Democratic Party, Nicola Zingaretti, as one of the banners of the progressive camp.
Instead of acknowledging the half-failure of the Citizenship Income, Conte instead argued: 1) that it would be "unreasonable to evaluate such a complex measure less than a year after its entry into force" without granting "a suitable time to be able to fully evaluate its effectiveness"; 2) that such a measure "should not be evaluated by the number of beneficiaries who have found employment"; 3) that, in any case, beyond the actual results achieved so far, "the Government's commitment remains firm to implement the Citizenship Income to its maximum potential, in order to improve its ability to combat poverty and to encourage socio-economic reintegration".
But nothing suggests that a typically welfare measure can suddenly create job opportunities and, then, wouldn't it be better to divert at least part of the substantial funds that the State allocates to the Citizenship Income to interventions that really boost growth? But Conte turns a deaf ear and pretends to still believe in miracles. “On balance, none of the great measures taken by Conte 1 are bearing the desired results. And yet – observes the brilliant economist Veronica De Romanis in the Foglio – Conte 2 has confirmed them all” but “it is not surprising, given that the prime minister – Giuseppe Conte – and the majority shareholder – the 5 Star Movement – they are the same".
What is surprising - De Romanis is right - is that the Democratic Party shows that it doesn't make a turn and you continue to follow the disastrous economic recipes (and judicial) of the Five Stars. But if Zingaretti's party does not decide to dictate the government's agenda even when the vertical collapse of consensus of the Five Stars is there for all to see, it is not clear when it will ever do it and why it wants to condemn itself to gregariousness flattening on a populism that is not worthy of the ancient traditions of the Democratic Party and which can only do damage.
