Parliamentary pensions medieval-Di Maio

(ANSA) - Rome, February 27 - Luigi Di Maio, a senior member of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the Lower House Deputy Speaker, described Italy's 'vitalizi' parliamentary pensions as medieval as he presented a proposal to abolish them on Monday.
    Unlike ordinary pensions, 'vitalizi' are paid from when a person leaves parliament, not when they reach retirement age.
    They are frequently portrayed by critics as a symbol of the privileges the Italian political class gives itself.
    "This is a medieval privilege that we want to abolish with 20 lines of text and a simple resolution," said Di Maio, who is frequently tipped to be a future M5S premier candidate. He also accused ex-premier Matteo Renzi, who is running to be re-elected head of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), of mimicking the M5S with his new job-guarantee proposal, the 'citizen's job'.
    The M5S has proposed a 'citizen's income' benefit be established to ensure people who are out of work, including those not eligible for unemployment benefit, have enough money to meet their basic needs. "He has taken our proposal, the citizen's income, and replaced it with the 'citizen's job'. This is just an operation in political marketing," Di Maio. "The public have seen through this".