Parts of Fornero law should stay (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, January 11 - Parts of the controversial 2011 Fornero pension reform "should be maintained", centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday, despite his chief ally's flagship campaign vow to scrap it totally. "We have gone into the matter with our economists, some things must be maintained as they are, with the age for retiring," he said on Raiuno talk show Porta a Porta. Matteo Salvini, leader of the rightwing populist League, has long vowed to make scrapping the law his first act in government. Berlusconi said "we believe it is correct that the pension age should go up, but with the contributive system we want to remove all limits, so if someone wants to retire at 50 he gets the pension he has paid in".
    Asked about Berlusconi's plan to keep some "good parts" of the law, Salvini said earlier this week that "it's no problem because there are no good parts in it". The reform, named after former labour minister Elsa Fornero, raises the retirement age for both sexes to 67 by 2019. Most parties have made campaign vows ahead of the March 4 general election to let workers in "heavy" jobs retire earlier, a move that was partially approved under the last government led by Paolo Gentiloni.