It must have been a warm autumn, and now the temperature begins to rise. In the last few hours, the political clash has ignited on three of the most controversial chapters of all: the anti-corruption law, spending cuts and pension reform. The first two issues concern measures that the government has yet to adopt, the real protagonists of this second part of the legislature. The pension reform, on the other hand, went on file last winter together with the first decree of the Monti team, the Italy saver, but is now undergoing the cross-attack of politics. However, it is not only the climate of the electoral campaign that is agitating spirits, widening the rift that divides the technical executive from the majority parties. New disagreements arise in the very ranks of the government.
PENSIONS
On the subject of pensions, the former minister Cesare Damiano has proposed a bill to sweeten the Fornero reform, introducing a series of steps that would allow workers to retire until 2017 with 58 years of age and 35 of contributions. The proposal obtained the unanimous approval not only of the majority (Pd, Pdl and Udc), but even of the oppositions (Idv and Lega). Instead, a clear refusal comes from the executive, who is preparing to reject the bill for lack of financial coverage.
The text passed in the Labor Committee in the Chamber and now lands in the Chamber in Montecitorio. Damiano explained that the required coverage is 5 billion, but for the moment there is no green light from the Budget commission, which is waiting for the technical report from the general accounting department. It is very probable that at this point the measure will be stopped.
Damiano said he was "astonished" by the government's objections. Is there no coverage? "And then the government will find another." Savings for Italy are expected to amount to 12 billion thanks to the pension reform: "9 have been spent on redundancies, so there are at least 3". In any case, "we don't want to dismantle Minister Fornero's reform", Damiano explained again.
Meanwhile, the Ansa news agency released a letter dated August 7 in which Fornero wrote to the chairman of the Labor commission of the Chamber on the proposed changes to the pension reform. The minister asked that "every effort" be made to avoid the risk of measures which, "if not adequately understood internationally, could have the effect of compromising the financial stabilization efforts made so far by the government and Parliament".
ANTI-CORRUPTION
Another sore point for the government in this phase is the tormented anti-corruption bill. On this front, a new conflict has arisen within the executive itself. Yesterday the Minister of Public Administration, Filippo Patroni Griffi, denied the Undersecretary to the Prime Minister, Antonio Catricalà, which in an interview with Il Messaggero had announced an amendment to the text to establish a super commissioner chosen by the government and elected by a qualified majority by the Parliament.
“Right now I believe that the absolute priority is the conclusion of the parliamentary process of the bill – said the minister -. And this is why the government has presented an amendment only relating to the repression of corruption and therefore to the second part of the text". The Justice Minister Paola Severino supported this position: “I think an anti-corruption commissioner is a possibility, but he could intervene in a measure other than the anti-corruption bill. Now the priority is to approve the measure”.
Catricalà's reversal soon came: “If the proposal were to cause delays, then it can be envisaged to include it in the Stability law. There is no conflict with Patroni Griffi, with whom I agreed word for word on the amendment and agreed on the new provision”.
Meanwhile the PDL presented again two amendments controversial signed by Senator Luigi Compagna. The first proposal is called "Save-Ruby“, because it would frustrate the trial in which Silvio Berlusconi is accused, and it is advanced for the fourth time. The objective is to provide for pecuniary damage as a condition for the crime of extortion to materialize, the weight of which would also be lightened by changing a simple adverb in the definition of the charge. The second amendment was renamed instead "Anti-Batman” (with reference to Franco Fiorito, former PDL group leader in the Lazio Region now in prison on embezzlement charges) and plans to increase the penalties for public officials who appropriate public funds.
Il Pd Instead, he asked for three other provisions to be included in the bill: false accounting, self-laundering and vote swapping.
EXPENDITURE CUTS
Lastly, on the public finance front, the battle is with the trade unions. This afternoon's Council of Ministers will discuss how to find others 10 billion euros, of which 6,5 to avoid the VAT increase in July and the rest for mandatory expenses such as reconstruction after the earthquake in Emilia. Funds to be found with new ones healthcare cuts (1,5 billion), Local societies (2 billion to the Regions and another 2 to the Municipalities, the latter however rewarded with an equal amount of IMU revenue now from the State) and state workers (another three-year freeze on individual salaries and no contract renewal in 2013). The scissors should flow into the new 2013 Stability law.
However, the CGIL is not there: "To cut the funding to health care again would be irresponsible", they say from the Corso d'Italia union. An argument that also agrees with the Minister of Health, Renato Balduzzi, who recalls how his department has already had to "make sacrifices with the spending review".
According to Susanna Camusso, leader of the CGIL, the stability law is a "masked maneuver" and "if there are no answers on income and work, the mobilization will continue until the general strike".
