(see related stories on Meloni).
Premier Giorgia Meloni thanked the
protesters who turned up at the CGIL congress in Rimini on
Friday to give her flak and stuck to her guns on issues that she
and left-wing trade union differ on, including whether to
introduce a minimum wage.
"I thank those who protest against me," said Meloni, the leader
of the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
"I didn't want to miss this event," she added, saying her
presence was "a sign of respect to the union" after becoming the
first premier in 27 years to attend the congress
She added that the heckles did not rattle her.
"I've been booed at since I was 16," she said, after a group of
participants jeered her and walked out of the conference hall
with their fists raised singing 'Bella Ciao', a song associated
with the Italian Partisans during World War II.
"Dialogue is necessary and useful," she added.
"If this is the approach, there are excellent reasons to have
discussions, with the strength of the ideas which each side
legitimately stands by".
The conference room was silent when Meloni reiterated her
opposition to introducing a minimum wage and stood by her
decision to scrap the 'citizenship wage' minimum-income benefit
for the jobless, saying it had "failed in its aims".
She lamented an upswing in political violence, criticizing the
attack on the CGIL's Rome headquarters in October 2021 by
far-right militants during a protest against the COVID-19 Green
Pass health certificate and a recent wave of violent protests
and acts of intimidation and vandalism by anarchists.
"The trade union movement has always been engaged in the fight
against terrorism," Meloni said.
"We thought that the time of ferocious ideological clashes was
behind us.
"But, unfortunately, it seems to me that there are increasingly
frequent signs of a return to political violence.
"All the political parties, trade unions and intermediate bodies
must fight together to combat this".
She went on to defend her government's plans to overhaul Italy's
tax system, which the CGIL and other unions blasted after
Meloni's cabinet approved the reform plan on Thursday.
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