CGIL, bodies to rally for health system June 24

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 27 - Italy's biggest and most left-wing trade union federation CGIL will join with lay and religious associations to rally on June 24 in defence of the national health service, union sources said Saturday.
    A national demonstration will be held on Saturday 24 June in Rome "for the defence and relaunch of the national, public and universal health service" and the right to health of people and in the workplace, they said.
    And another national demonstration will be held in Rome on Saturday 30 September for "the defence and implementation of the Constitution, against autonomy and the distortion of the parliamentary Republic," referring to the fight against the rightwing League party's plans for differentiated autonomy which have been criticised on grounds they will worsen health and other disparities between Italian regions.
    The sources said "this is the mobilisation path that CGIL and a network of lay and Catholic associations are preparing to put under the slogan 'Together for the Constitution', which must be implemented and not overturned: environment, rights, work, health, peace." The demos are also seen as being implicitly against rightwing Premier Giorgia Meloni's plans to change the anti-fascist postwar Constitution to allow the direct election by the people of the Italian premier or president.
    photo: CGIL leader Maurizio Landini (ANSA).