Premier Mario Draghi on Tuesday is
seeing Italy's three big trade union federations amid government
tension with the 5-Star Movement (M5S) which on Monday boycotted
a Lower House vote on a COVID aid package decree.
M5S leader and ex-premier Giuseppe Conte has presented Draghi
with a list of policy demands he says must be answered to gain
the party's continued support for the national unity coalition
backing the former European central banker's executive.
Among these demands are two issues that will also feature highly
on the talks with the CGIL, CISL and UIL unions: a minimum wage
and a cut in the labour-tax wedge to help the 'working poor' and
combat the cost-of-living crisis sparked by soaring energy bills
amid the Ukraine war.
National contract renewals to keep pace with inflation will also
feature high on the agenda in the talks.
CISL leader Luigi Sbarra said before the meeting with Draghi
that "we must safeguard the purchasing power of wages and
pensions which are now being crushed by the uncontrolled rise in
prices," with inflation at a record 8%.
The hope of Draghi, who reported to President Sergio Mattarella
on the political situation Monday night, is to get the M5S back
in line before Thursday's Senate vote of confidence on the aid
decree.
The government can survive without the M5S's support but if they
withdrew from the ruling coalition there would probably be a
reshuffle at least, with early elections an outside bet,
political experts say.
Former M5S leader and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, who
recently split from the movement to form his own smaller
breakaway party Together for the Future (IpF), said Tuesday of
his former colleagues: "You don't address citizens' problems by
threatening the government".
The two centre-right parties who are in government, ex-premier
Suilvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI), and the
rightwing League party of former interior minister Matteo
Salvini, have called for a "verification" of the state of
support for the governing coalition.
Salvini is continuing a push that has caused a new source of
friction within Draghi's coalition by calling on alliance
partners the M5S and the Democratic Party (PD) to drop bills on
easing laws against the use of cannabis and making it easier for
migrants' children to obtain Italian citizenship.
Although the bills have not been presented by the government,
Salvini says parliament should be focusing on other issues, such
as the cost-of-living crisis.
Salvini told Affaritaliani.it that, while the League does not
want to pull its support for Draghi's government, it was worried
about the "continual provocations of the PD and the M5S.
"While Italian people have problems with salaries that are too
low and bills that are too high, the left is blocking parliament
in order to legalize drugs and give citizenship to immigrants.
"It's madness, an insult not just to the League, but also to
millions of citizens who are in difficulty".
The cannabis bill would make it possible for people to cultivate
up to four cannabis plants for personal use
The 'ius scholae' bill would enable the children of migrants
who are born in Italy or who entered the country before they are
12 and have lived and attended school here for at lest five
years to obtain citizenship.
At the moment children of migrants have to wait until they are
18 to apply for Italian citizenship, even if they were born
here.
PD bigwig Graziano Delrio told La Stampa that he did not see
what the fuss was about, as the bills were nothing to do with
the government.
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