Politicians were divided Tuesday
on the decision by the Constitutional Court to declare
inadmissible a referendum on a December 2011 pensions reform,
with proponents of a popular vote saying the ruling amounted to
the 'death of Italian democracy' and opponents saying parliament
was the appropriate place to review the controversial law.
Former Labour Minister Elsa Fornero, who authored the
reform, welcomed the ruling as being "positive for the country".
"Now it is for parliament to examine the law if it wants
to, calmly and with farsightedness," continued the university
professor who served as labour minister under the technocrat
government led by economist Mario Monti from 2011 to 2013.
"Far from me to say the law is perfect, but a passage
through parliament is preferable," she concluded.
Meanwhile Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, whose
party proposed the referendum, said that on Tuesday "Italian
democracy has died".
"You can hear 'go to hell' all over Italy. It doesn't end
here... the judges have screwed a sacrosanct right. This Italy
disgusts me and I'll fight to overhaul it", said Salvini of the
decision not to allow a referendum on article 24 of the December
22, 2011 law.
The article raised the pensionable age and requirements for
retirement on the basis of the number of years of social
security contributions made and created the so-called 'exiled'
(esodati), namely people finding themselves unemployed and
without pension rights for a number of years.
The Monti government addressed the problem of the esodati
in subsequent provisions but the problem reportedly persists.
Further, opponents of the pension reform claim it makes
labour market entry for young people more difficult and
penalises female workers in particular.
Following the Constitutional Court decision Anna Giacobbe
of Premier Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) and a member of
the House Labour Committee called on the government to tackle
the issue.
"We have made slight progress on single issues, or parts of
issues, in recent months; on others we have hit walls," Giacobbe
said.
"It's time for the government to put the matter on its
agenda," she concluded.
The Monti government pursued the pensions reform as part of
EU-mandated austerity measures aimed to combat recession and
Italy's massive public debt amid the crisis in the eurozone.
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