Count in the Senate, what happened. Facts, comments and insights
All the latest updates on the government crisis and the Senate vote. The Start Magazine special
"I think today there will be 158 votes in favor of Prime Minister Conte". This is the prediction made by Bruno Tabacci a few hours after the vote of confidence in the Senate. But the abacus, and the constantly updated calculations of those who have been dealing with the dossier for days, push the majority to be less optimistic in these hours. Caution transpires especially from the Democratic Party. At the moment, there are 152 certain votes in support of the executive.
Therefore, 9 votes below the threshold of the absolute majority which, it must be reiterated, does not need to be achieved; but for the government and the Giallorossi the hoped-for objective would be to collect at least 158 votes (majority parliamentary sources claim that the yes would be 157). A goal that would lower the gap from the votes against and from the abstentions of the Renzians, whose total could reach 157-159, according to the reconstruction of the Agi, the press agency directed by Mario Sechi.
In reiterating the appeal for "clear support, transparent support, which is based on convinced adherence to a political project", Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, speaking this morning at Palazzo Madama, admitted that "numbers are important, today more than yesterday, today is a fundamental step in the institutional life of our country ", however for the Prime Minister" more important is the quality of the political project and we ask all political and parliamentary forces who care about the fate of 'Italy to help us get back on track as quickly as possible ”.
The majority in its official perimeter counts on 146 votes in favor: 92 of M5s (the group in the Senate is made up of 93 senators, but there is an absence due to illness); 35 of the Pd; 8 of the Autonomies; 6 of Leu; 4 of the Maie, to which is added the vote of Maurizio Buccarella, former M5s who last Saturday announced in an interview with Tg his passage in the group of the Italian Movement Abroad. To these certain votes must be added the votes of senator for life Liliana Segre and former premier Mario Monti. And you get to an altitude of 148.
Tommaso Cerno (who is returning to the Pd), the former M5s Gregorio De Falco, the former Forza Italia Sandra Lonardo and Sandro Ruotolo announced the favorable vote. For a total of 152.
The vote of Riccardo Nencini of the PSI, however, is still uncertain, thanks to which Matteo Renzi was able to give life to Group IV in the Senate. Nencini, speaking in the Chamber, remained vague: “We will evaluate”. There are those who count them among the votes in favor, but the former pentastellati now at the Mixed Lelio Ciampolillo and Luigi Di Marzio have not yet formalized their position, so they should be considered among the uncertain.
The no Action-More Europe confirms – he already voted against yesterday in the Chamber – as well as, after yet another center-right summit, the 3 UDC centrists reiterate their solid no to trust (even today Paola Binetti explained that she will vote against trust but in the future "we will see"), the totians of Cambiamo and Idea.
No defection is the refrain that comes from Forza Italia, even if in the majority at least two Italian senators (Anna Carmela Minuto and Andrea Causin) remain 'attentive', hoping for the Polverini effect, which yesterday in the House voted in favor of trust.
Not certain, at the moment, not even the votes of other former M5s, such as Mario Giarrusso and Tiziana Drago.
Spotlight also on Renzians: IV sources assure that there will be no surprises, all 17 senators present in the Senate (Marino is justified absent for Covid) will abstain.
The confirmation comes from one of the Renzians in the balance: "Tonight I will abstain, abstention is the only position that allows us to re-tie the threads of dialogue and comparison with our majority colleagues, one thing ' need. If we vote 'no', it's over, and it's a problem for each country ”, explains Eugenio Comincini.
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ALL THE INSIGHTS OF START MAGAZINE ON CONTE AND THE GOVERNMENT AT THE SENATE:
What Mattarella will (not) do
Quota 161 to the Senate? Not necessary for Conte, that's why
Here is the program and splits of the Catholic party Together pro Conte
I'll tell you about Mastella's archicontism
Count to the Chamber? A mixture of arrogance and hypocrisy
Conte's souk, Recovery half blind (says Gentiloni), Meloni warns Colle, debate in the League on screamers and starlets
Conte will scrap Renzi with the blessing of bishops and Mattarella
The damage caused by the crisis and where Italy will go in 2021. Bankitalia report
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THE FULL TEXT OF COUNT'S SPEECH TO THE SENATE:
Dear President, Dear Senators and Dear Senators,
I also join in the name of the Government first of all in this memory of Senator Emanuele Macaluso who has been here for many years, has carried out activities from these benches and then for many other years as an esteemed journalist. I believe that even those who did not share his political ideas can agree that he was a great protagonist of Italian political life, of Italian cultural life.
At the beginning of this government experience, on 9 September 2019, I prefigured a clear political project for the country in this House.
I immediately pointed out that the program on which I was about to ask Parliament for confidence was not resolved, could not be resolved, in a mere listing of heterogeneous proposals nor in a sterile sum of the positions taken by each of the political forces that would have supported the majority.
Even then I was aware that an alliance between political formations coming from different histories, traditions, experiences, cultures, which in addition had also opposed each other at times even in a bitter way in the more recent past, could only be born on the basis of two discriminating factors. fundamentals:
a) Not an extrinsic adhesion but a convinced anchoring to constitutional values (I mention only the primacy of the person, work, equality in the double formal and substantial role, protection of the environment);
b) and then again the solid pro-European vocation of our country, in order to fully realize the national interest, in order to allow Italy to return to being a protagonist in the European scenario and to help the whole European Union recover the position of leadership in the current international geo-political context.
From the moment of the elaboration of the program to which I also dedicated myself together with the delegations of the majority political forces – because we all made sure, together, that the prospect of a broad and courageous reform plan was outlined.
I then affirmed that that political project would mark the beginning of a new – which we have all hoped for and still hope – decisive reforming season, aimed at building a more equitable and more inclusive society, capable of combining the primary objective of economic growth , of the relaunch and modernization with the essential needs of sustainability, social and territorial cohesion, in the horizon of the full development of the human person.
Even today, after more than a year, looking at those twenty-nine programmatic points, I see that in the country project that we shared and outlined together, albeit in complex circumstances and conditions, there was vision.
There was a strong ideal drive.
There was a clear investment of trust.
At the beginning of 2020 the conditions for the implementation of that project unfortunately measured themselves with the hurricane of the pandemic, it was a hurricane and it is a hurricane that has upset and is deeply upsetting our society, our life habits, our collective destiny.
The pandemic has forced us to redefine our priorities, to rethink our development model, the very dynamics of our relationships.
We are facing an epochal challenge. We are measuring ourselves against the need to define the reconstructive lines of a society marked – again – it seems like a re-precipitating into the past, from primordial fears, more often known by generations of the past, fears linked to the risk of losing essential goods, such as life and health, and to go back to feeling deeply fragile.
Some of our deep-rooted certainties were suddenly questioned.
“Politics” itself has been forced to compete almost daily – perhaps as never before – with science and technology, in the difficulty of offering effective and rapid responses to an overwhelming health emergency and a severe economic recession.
Even our most consolidated legal knowledge has been severely questioned. By virtue of the state of emergency we were forced to be the first to introduce in the West with all the doubts and perplexities, the difficulties obviously followed shortly after by all the other countries – we had to introduce restrictive measures of the rights of the person, working very delicate and laborious balances of constitutional principles and rights.
In these dramatic months, even in the face of unprecedented complexity, this majority has managed to demonstrate great responsibility, reaching – certainly even with difficulty – convergence of views and decisiveness of action, as was required, especially in the most critical passages.
We have cultivated a constant and close dialogue with all the institutional levels of our system, starting with the regional authorities up to the municipal ones, in the awareness that only by practicing the principle of "loyal cooperation" in a tireless way would it be possible to pursue effective intervention strategies , considering – not to mention – that the competences in the field of health management are remitted, in our legal system, primarily to the Regions.
Not only.
The experience of the pandemic has strengthened, in the political forces that have loyally supported the Government, the awareness of the value of dialogue and of the dialectical confrontation between even distant positions, an unavoidable prerequisite for making the most right choices, to make those syntheses superior to the superior collective interest, to take the fundamental decisions, which – due to the gravity of the hour – we could not escape.
Have we always made the best choices? Have we always made the right decisions?
Each on this point will express their own evaluations, we are in the field of the questionable. For my part, I can say that the Government has operated the delicate balances of the constitutional interests involved from time to time, with the utmost scruple and with the utmost attention, in the awareness of the consequences of immense importance that would be produced in the life of individuals and for the future of our community.
And if today to you who are here in this room and to the citizens who follow us from home I can speak on behalf of the whole government with their heads held high, it is not for the arrogance of those who believe they have never made a mistake, but for the awareness of those who, together with the entire government team, have committed all their physical and intellectual energies to offer the best possible protection to the national community.
In all these months a political debate has arisen, a political debate also of a certain depth concerning the role of politics.
We have all wondered about the role of politics.
Here.
I have already clearly pointed out that the dialogue between politics and science has become particularly intense, particularly dense, almost daily.
In reality, never as in this period has “politics” been called to fulfill its noblest mission, to make choices for the common good, some of which have a “tragic” significance.
The choice to protect health as a priority was "political", and this was an intuition, a conviction that immediately took root in the government: not only because health is a fundamental right of the person and primary interest of the community, but also in the awareness that only by protecting that primary asset could the country's productive fabric be preserved and preserved.
All "political" was the choice to allocate – also by resorting to repeated and progressive budget variances – huge resources (more than 100 billion euros in terms of net debt) to support workers, businesses, families and fragile categories, with refreshments to some extent correlated with the losses suffered, although as I pointed out yesterday, I certainly do not mean that these refreshments are sufficient to fully compensate for the losses suffered.
And it is these interventions that have allowed us to be able to erect a belt of social and economic protection that has also been appreciated by illustrious economists, such as the Nobel laureate Paul Krugman.
Strongly "political", again, was the determination with which the Government, first among the European governments, asked, promoted an initiative, asked the European Union to respond to the crisis in a radically different way than in the past and to promoting expansionary policies, financed by common debt instruments, aimed at achieving shared strategies.
The historic agreement on the Next Generation EU program, for the achievement of which Italy has played a driving and decisive role, spending itself at every level, in every location, formal and informal, not only allows us to have 209 billion euros, but it has impressed – and this is perhaps even more important in perspective – because it has given European politics an irreversible change, inaugurating a new course, capable of profoundly changing the paradigms of economic policies and the very face of the European Union.
And we will discuss this turning point, shortly, in the context of the conference on the future of Europe.
Isn't this the result, also eminently political, of the pro-European choice that represented one of the founding reasons for the government alliance?
Still "political" was the choice of accompanying emergency measures with structural interventions, capable – in the medium and long term – of generating virtuous effects.
Even in the most complex moments of the health and economic emergency we have never given up on laying the foundations for the relaunch of the country. And already with the budget law for 2020, I remember, the Government:
– introduced the cut of the tax wedge for the benefit of workers (later made structural), also think about the cut of the health superticket and the bonuses for nurseries, the building bonuses, the various interventions for environmental sustainability and urban regeneration and other measures.
We immediately took up the challenge of transforming difficulties into opportunities.
Aware of the structural deficiencies of our country, we have laid the foundations for a decisive relaunch of growth by creating an environment more favorable to private investments, more inclined to research and innovation, more attentive to the construction and strengthening of skills. And if you examine, and we go with the mind to all the decree-laws issued during the first phases of the emergency and up to the last budget law, we will also find structural measures that can be read and interpreted in this perspective.
Think of the 21 billion, from 2020 to 2026, of available resources, in order to strengthen the hospital and territorial assistance network, enhance medical-nursing staff, hire health personnel and invest in the training of doctors and nurses.
Think of the measures for school and university, we have further strengthened the interventions on staffing and digitization, investments in school and university buildings and in research, we have expanded the no-tax area for university students and school staff . And we already have the first results as regards the inversion in the number of matriculates, it is an important signal, in the southern universities; it was always negative, it grew by 6.7%.
A major reform will start next July: the single monthly allowance for each dependent child, up to 21 years of age, which will involve about 12.5 million children and teenagers. It is a measure that is part of a wider framework of interventions, aimed at relieving the economic pressure on families and reducing the burden of care that weighs particularly on women, also stimulating female employment.
We have introduced robust incentives for private investments, focusing in particular on: the green and digital transition, female and youth employment. Also in this perspective we understand the strengthening of the “Transition 4.0” package, with particular attention to investments in new digital technologies. The 110% super bonus for energy efficiency and anti-seismic upgrading of buildings must also be interpreted in this perspective.
We have zeroed for 3 years the contributions for the recruitment of young people under the age of 35 throughout Italy and we have introduced a total deduction for the recruitment of female workers.
We have introduced and brought into effect, up to 2029, the advantageous taxation system for all companies operating in the South. We are not southerners by intellectual vocation. To fill the gap that Italy does not run, because if the South does not run, we have always made it clear, Italy cannot run, so we have introduced a 30% cut in social security contributions for the first 5 years. And then again I would like to recall two measures to give the sense of interventions that look and give a vision for the country aimed at improving the competitiveness of our productive fabric which is made up above all of small and medium-sized enterprises, but obviously also large enterprises struggle in this. conflict of crisis.
I refer to the PMI Patrimonio Fund, managed by Invitalia, which favors the capitalization of small and medium-sized enterprises that invest in their own relaunch, and the Intended Assets, managed by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, which can contribute not only to support, but also to growth of companies with turnover exceeding 50 million euros.
Also in view of the great challenge of the Recovery Plan, we wanted to clearly redefine the regulatory framework to support investments, in particular infrastructural ones.
The “simplifications” decree-law is aimed precisely at preparing the most suitable legal environment to allow these new measures, these new investments to be effectively grounded. In fact, we have defined an accelerated path for the realization of public works and we have intervened to redefine, in a very shrewd way, the liability regime of the public administration with particular regard to the redefinition of tax liability, the delimitation of the crime of abuse of office. We have created the conditions for civil servants and persons in charge of public services to operate within a framework of greater legal certainty, according to a logic of greater efficiency.
And in this regard I often hear the objection raised, I must tell the truth it also happened yesterday in the Chamber, according to which after a few months, the works, although considered a priority under the simplification decree, would still be blocked because the designation of the related Commissioners.
Apart from the fact that the list of commissioners is now there, but it is not. These works have never been blocked because article 2 of the simplification decree has been applied, which attributes special powers of the commissioners to the RUPs, to sole project managers. And this is testified by the fact that in 2020, think, even in this difficult economic context, contracts, especially those of Anas and Rfi, have grown. We have reached a total of 43.3 billion compared to 39.4 in 2019.
We could not have achieved all this, and obviously it is a small anthology of the measures introduced, if there had not been sharing, collaboration and responsibility in each political force, each political force.
Because you see when you suffer so much the country is more united, the sense of community is awakened. And the unity of the Government has also been strengthened, the tenor of our alliance has also been raised, the reasons for our being together have also strengthened.
In this perspective, the sense of responsibility shown also by the opposition political forces was fundamental, which – despite the clear differentiation, in the political dialectic of the different positions they have, contributed to tackling some critical passages with responsibility. I am thinking of the various occasions in which you have voted on the budget gap, you have made concrete and qualifying proposals, some of which have been warmly accepted and shared by the majority forces.
Also thanks to this dialogue with the opposition we have strengthened, on the occasion of the last budget law, the support measures, for example for self-employed workers and VAT numbers.
Precisely in the most critical moments in the history of a country we must rediscover the high reasons of politics, those that inspire the most authentic choices, the reasons that drive the commitment of those who believe that politics is essentially a service for the national community: not politics as an exercise of power, nor politics as mere management of the contingent, but politics as thought and action oriented towards man, his needs, his expectations.
After going through this bend in human history that our generation happened to experience, nothing will be the same as before.
The government must live up to this lofty task.
Unfortunately, at the height of a few weeks of very bitter media attacks, I have to say sometimes even broken up, some exponents of Italia Viva anticipated and then confirmed that they want to get away from this common path.
This was followed by an abstention by the ministers of Italia Viva at the time of approval, in the Council of Ministers, of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, with the substantive or in any case main reason that does not include the resources of the Mes, which, however, as you know it is a financing instrument that has nothing to do with the Recovery Fund.
Finally, a press conference was held on 13 January during which the resignations of the ministers were then confirmed.
Thus a crisis has opened that today must find its own clarification here, in this institutional setting, according to the principles of transparency of the comparison and, if you allow me, the linearity of action that has characterized my mandate up to now and which, moreover, are essential rules. of a parliamentary democracy.
It is a crisis that takes place in a crucial phase of our country, when the pandemic is still in full swing and many families are suffering from the loss of loved ones. And I confessed it yesterday, I confessed that I feel some discomfort. I am here today not to illustrate, if anything to discuss with you, the new support measures for citizens and businesses, not to illustrate and discuss with you the new version of the Recovery Plan, but to try to explain a crisis of which I imagine citizens , but, I must confess, I myself do not see any plausible foundation.
Our energies should all and always be concentrated on urgent responses to the crisis that is gripping the country, thus appearing, in the eyes of citizens, dissipated in controversial and often sterile counterpoints, completely incomprehensible to those who are faced with the fear of disease every day. , with the specter of impoverishment, with social and even psychological distress, with the anguish of the future.
I said it yesterday, with this crisis, we risk losing touch with reality.
Was there really a need to open a political crisis at this stage?
I believe not. And, in fact, the ministers and government allies who have been able to closely follow the events of recent weeks are witnesses to the fact that we have made every effort, with the utmost willingness, to prevent this crisis from exploding.
Despite continuous claims, increasingly pressing criticism, continuous relaunches often and not casually focused on clearly divisive issues with respect to the various sensibilities of the majority forces. Hence the accusations against the entire government, but in particular also at my role, at the same time, of inaction and running too much, of centralizing powers and not having the ability to decide. I assure you that it is complicated, very complicated to govern in these conditions with those who continually plant mines on the common path. And it aims to wear down a political balance patiently achieved by the majority forces.
This government crisis has opened a deep wound within the government structure and among the majority forces, but it has also caused dismay in the country.
It is a crisis that risks damaging our image, it has attracted the attention of the international media and foreign chancelleries.
At this point, we cannot cancel what has happened or think that we can recover that climate of trust and that sense of trust which are essential conditions for being able to work, all together, in the interest of the country.
Now we must turn the page. This country deserves a cohesive government, dedicated full-time to working exclusively for the well-being of citizens and to promote a prompt restart of our social life and an incisive recovery of our economy.
The tasks are many and they are all urgent.
First of all, we must all continue to work together to secure the country and get it out of this pandemic.
The vaccine distribution plan is proceeding apace. We are the first in Europe, but we must continue to work with the utmost determination, waiting for the new vaccines to become available and to be able to test new monoclonal antibody therapies. Among other things, in the coming months it will be important to strengthen the testing policy also following the latest resolution approved by the Senate.
We need to complete the Recovery Plan, urgently.
We have sent the updated document to Parliament, updated by virtue of the contribution of all the majority forces, which I thank them for this improvement. And now we look forward to receiving the valuable information that will be contained in Parliament's resolutions.
I want to take advantage of this opportunity to address a thank you, on behalf of the government, to all the associations representing the productive categories, to the Italian trade union. During this pandemic, all of these associations are making an indispensable contribution to making our interventions even more effective. I also acknowledged that they are contributing to a very important function these days: the social stability of the country. Moreover, with the safety protocols, together with the CTS and, lastly, with the willingness to collaborate to speed up the administration of vaccines, all the associations have set all the conditions for the protection of health, safety in the workplace and economic recovery. march in unison. They too will be involved in this process. I imagine from you at the hearing and also from the government because we will also show them this new updated version and the Recovery Plan. We also expect a contribution from them. I would also like to underline that once we have received the precious indications contained in the resolutions in Parliament, we will work on the final version of the Recovery Plan. We will bring it back to Parliament for final approval. So there will be ample opportunity to speak and collect all your information. But be careful, so that this collective effort can produce its effects, and we must not lower the attention threshold because it is a considerable effort for our country, we will also have to accompany the plan with a regulatory provision containing procedural paths capable of overcoming obstacles. bureaucratic and to ensure rapid and certain deadlines for the realization of the investments and the reform plan. In short, we will have to reinforce those safeguards that allow us to respect deadlines and carefully monitor the execution of the works.
We must urgently work in the coming days, starting tomorrow, to enact the new refreshment decree. Parliament will be called upon to comment on the new request for a deviation, which has become necessary also due to the current evolution of the epidemiological curve which foreshadows new restrictions on economic activities. The sum that you will find indicated in our request, in our report, is very substantial: 32 billion euros of net debt. They are resources for everyone, for citizens, we must plan the measures with the utmost caution to offer a further belt of social and economic protection and relaunch for the country. Obviously, among these sums, I say this in advance, we must set aside the reserves necessary to activate the social safety nets for the whole of 2021.
Italy needs a series of interventions and reforms in the economic and social field that provide for a renewed commitment by the Government, from now to the end of the legislature. I don't want to go into detail so as not to bore you, but we will have to intervene for the job.
We must complete the rationalization of the social safety nets system, a major and demanding overall reform. We need to offer solid proposals for active employment policies. March is already tomorrow and you know that the layoffs, the freeze on layoffs is valid until the end of March.
We still need to strengthen health, health interventions, I do not linger.
Still, work for education and research.
The green revolution, environmental sustainability and protection of the territory: we must accelerate the decarbonisation of electricity production; we must promote the renewal of the public rolling stock and of private and commercial means of transport; strengthen the water network and make the area safe; urban regeneration, many other chapters;
Industrial policy: Here it deserves a digression but I simplify. We must continue in this period of recession to protect and supervise those which are the most strategic investments in the country, we must favor an industrial strategy aimed at relaunching the competitiveness of the production system, aimed at generating a structural change towards economic activities with high added value; we must avoid concentrating interventions according to an easy, accessible logic, of incentives, which however risk being distributed indiscriminately, without bringing adequate added value; we must strengthen intervention policies on the basis of production chains, those that are our strength: I am thinking for example of tourism, automotive, agro-industrial and others;
we must foster public-private partnership;
we must also strengthen the third sector from a social economy perspective, the activities of the third sector, the intervention of non-profit organizations in order to better calibrate the interventions on social needs that are still not fully satisfied – I am thinking of housing services, services for children, families, care services for the benefit of vulnerabilities and the elderly. We will continue to pay great attention, constant attention to people with disabilities, to the most fragile sections of the population, and to their families. We must strengthen policies for self-sufficient life, work and finally recognize, there are already initiatives in Parliament, the figure of the caregiver, all the tools and initiatives useful to strengthen social inclusion.
Gender policies and female empowerment: we must tackle gender gaps by promoting actions aimed at increasing female employment, leveling wage gaps, freeing women from imbalances in care burdens, strengthening support for women victims of violence, making a difference in the cultural and educational paradigms regarding the gender issue, to favor a more transversal and integrated participation of women within society;
A great chapter of reform will be the tax reform: there is already a discussion underway, there is a concrete reform project. We must achieve this, to rationalize the existing framework, which is also essential for fully rebuilding trust between citizens, businesses, institutions, as well as for orienting our tax system towards competitiveness and sustainable growth.
We must continue on the path of digitizing the country: We have made great strides. In September 2019, Spid, which is digital identity, was known and had only been activated by 4 million citizens. Now we are at 16 million and one hundred thousand. The Io app, which allows you to have digitized services with the public administration, therefore comfortably staying at home, did not exist in September 2019. We are now 9 million 365 thousand citizens. Our goal is to reduce these inequalities, the various inequalities, also to aim for equality of starting points. Among these inequalities, in addition to the mentioned gender, territorial, generational inequalities, there is a great inequality, a great factor of inequality, the digital divide, the possibility of accessing or not accessing infotelematic tools. We must work in this direction.
Culture and tourism: There is a lot to do, they are among the sectors most suffering, most affected by this pandemic, we must enhance the main cultural assets of the country, we must work to train staff, strengthen the tourist offer, also through attraction of new investments. Yesterday in the Chamber we all applauded the news of Procida, the island of Arturo. It is the new Italian capital of culture in 2022.
On all these issues, I clearly made a synthesis, there is the possibility among the parliamentary forces to operate a convergence of reform perspectives and concrete proposals, on which to orient future government action for the revival of the country. We will work in the coming months to implement these reforms, these interventions to allow Italy to follow a path of growth with the aim of reducing existing inequalities, increasing competition while also contrasting position income. We will work on this, in this direction.
It is then necessary to dedicate a particular effort to continue with conviction also the path of institutional reforms, an essential precondition for modernizing the country and the greater functionality of its institutions.
All the more so, following the historic constitutional reform that led to a substantial reduction in the number of parliamentarians approved by the decided majority of citizens in the confirmatory referendum. Yesterday I also announced to the Chamber, in the matter of electoral law, the commitment of the Government also, but obviously respecting the autonomous decisions of the parliamentary forces, to promote and contribute to an electoral reform, as far as it is concerned, to an electoral reform proportional system, shared as much as possible, because it is a system law, which can effectively combine the reasons for the pluralism of representation with the need, albeit unavoidable, to ensure overall stability to the political system.
I would like to clarify on this point, because I read some interpretations, let's say malicious. In the past years we have experienced a shattering of representation. The picture of political forces has been differentiating, new processes have emerged that have affirmed themselves in a completely new, even explosive way. If we want to recompose this picture, it is not possible to do it with an electoral law that forces sensitivities, even if so different, into the same envelope. This artifice would lead to instability, political precariousness, it would not stabilize the picture. Rather, it seems urgent to offer an instrument, to contribute as far as is right to pursue an instrument that can also fully deploy its ability to favor the democratic representation of all the differences that are on the field, so that the various political forces can express all the their potential, that they also recover disheartened citizens from abstention, that they define their certainly credible profile. Obviously then these political forces to govern will be called to define high-profile programmatic agreements, with a strong ideal content, in order to generate governments based on clear programs, able to offer a solid, fruitful perspective to all citizens.
The modification of the electoral system can be effectively accompanied by some innovations of the institutional system, all the more necessary in light of the reduction in the number of parliamentarians, in line with the guidelines already shared by the majority parliamentary groups, in the agreement reached in October 2019.
It is necessary to introduce some corrections to the form of government, inspired by the model of a rationalized parliamentarism, which guarantees a more secure stability to the executive and, at the same time, returns to Parliament a central role in defining the national political direction.
With regard in particular to the legislative procedure, some provisions may be introduced aimed at rationalizing the process of approval of the laws, also in order to reduce the use of the emergency decree which in this last year, due to the pandemic, has even more significantly increased and conditioned parliamentary activity.
The experience of the pandemic requires careful, calm, meditated reflection on the revision of Title V of Part II of the Constitution. We all work together, we meditate together, on the current division of the legislative powers of the State and Regions, as well as we all work together to identify mechanisms and institutes that allow us to coordinate more effectively the relationship between the different levels of government.
In this context, special autonomies and linguistic minorities must also be guaranteed and protected with the utmost intensity. National interest is more than ever connected, in the wake of our best historical and constitutional tradition, to a system that enhances, within the framework of the unity of the Republic, the specific economic and social needs of the various territorial realities,
some of which – for geographic, linguistic and cultural specific reasons – undoubtedly deserve all our attention and care.
On the international level, Italy has moved in full coherence with the traditional pillars of its foreign policy, starting with its membership of the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance, within which we have carried out an impulse and mediation equal to our role as a founding country.
As an authoritative member of the European Union – a function fully recovered in this section of the legislature – we have the opportunity to also offer an important contribution to a useful connection between the main international actors, starting from the United States – our main ally and fundamental strategic partner. We look very carefully to the Biden presidency, with whom we will start working immediately, also in view of our presidency of the G20. We have a dense agenda in common, which ranges from multilateralism that we both want effective, to climate change, to the green transition, the digital one, to social inclusion. With the United States and with the other partners of the European Union we will also work towards having relations with China, which is a major player on a global level that are coherently anchored to our system of values and principles.
The Italian Presidency of the G20 has just begun: we will have the opportunity to direct the global agenda on the priorities we have already anticipated and which revolve around the triad: Person, Planet, Prosperity. As I have already mentioned on several occasions, we will place the issues of women's empowerment, Africa and the digital divide at the center of the attention of world leaders, among others.
This year we will also have the responsibility to share the organization of COP26 with the UK. In Milan we will have two very important events in this direction: the PreCop and the Youth4Climate. For the first time, hundreds and hundreds of young people will participate, they will be directly involved in what is the most important event regarding climate change and environmental protection.
Equally strong and coherent was and will be our action at the regional level, also in line with our consolidated interest in the stabilization and development of the Mediterranean – with particular regard to a political solution to the Libya crisis, in full compliance with the its sovereignty – and the integration process of the Western Balkans, in the belief of a destiny linked to their belonging to the European family.
Finally, we have given specific emphasis to an intense action in support of the internationalization of businesses and of our general economic system, through a collective commitment by the government and in particular by the Farnesina.
We are also privileged to host another significant global event, the Global Health Summit, on 21 May here in Rome, which will allow us to solemnly emphasize the importance of global coordination of efforts to tackle diseases and pandemics and to ensure more effective health protection.
Obviously we are going to make our contribution, loud and clear, programmatic, strategic, in view of the upcoming Conference for the "Future of Europe", which will give us the opportunity to give a new impulse to the evolution of our common European home. .
It is a busy calendar, you see, which is characterized by the high density of events and also by the political importance.
We cannot be caught unprepared or distracted. We are all called to make, each for his own role, a collective effort to be up to all these challenges. And this is why the Government needs the greatest possible cohesion and the broadest consensus in Parliament.
To do all this we need a government, willing parliamentary forces, aware of the difficulties we are going through and the delicacy of the tasks, we need people willing to recognize the importance of politics.
In the initial part of my speech I claimed the political character of the choices made, of the decisions taken.
Politics is the noblest of the arts and of knowledge, because if it is declined in the right spirit that always and in any case addressed to the well-being of citizens and to the improvement of their quality of life, it becomes a very effective tool also for resolving the conflicts of society, to know and make differences coexist, to interpret requests, even the most diverse and distant ones. When politics is eclipsed these instances end up remaining on the sidelines, with the risk that they remain unheard, and therefore unheard, or that they translate worse into anger, resulting in violent confrontation. We have an urgency to do politics. All the more so in this context of widespread deprivation, of profound suffering. Because only politics offers us the possibility of interpreting the malaise of society, preventing it from exploding into destructive oppositions. Politics can contribute to making this malaise a productive, positive element, a factor in the advancement of the nation. It is therefore up to us to promote, to put into political form the contradictions, aspirations, needs, the will on the part of all to express their potential. I am thinking of all the workers, of the productive forces which are the decisive components to be encouraged and promoted for the future of the Republic.
This government intends to pursue a clear and precise political project, which aims to modernize the country, improving its tangible and intangible infrastructures, making the energy and digital transition, enhancing social inclusion, all in the name of sustainable development. It will be our North Star.
Anyone who has ideas, projects and the will to build together with us this alliance devoted to pursuing "sustainable development", know that this is the right time to contribute to this perspective.
This alliance will be called upon to express an essential pro-European vocation. Only the political forces willing to make this clear choice of field against nationalist tendencies and sovereign aspirations can be part of it.
This alliance already exists because there is already a solid basis for dialogue fueled by the Movimento5stelle, by the Pd and by Leu, which is demonstrating the firmness of its anchorage and the breadth of its breath precisely on the occasion of the climate generated by this crisis.
It would be an enrichment for this alliance, I want to affirm it very clearly, to be able to acquire the political contribution of formations that also historically are placed in the wake of the best Europeanist traditions: I am thinking of the liberal, popular, socialist one.
But I ask for clear and transparent support, which is based on convinced adherence to a political project. Of course the numbers are important. Today even more. This is a fundamental step in the institutional life of our country. Numbers are important, and today they are especially important. But even more important is the quality of the political project. And we ask all the political and parliamentary forces who care about Italy's destiny to help us get back on track as quickly as possible. Help us to heal as soon as possible the wound that the crisis has produced in the "pact of trust" established in the pact with citizens. Why "pact of trust" with citizens? Because the trust between institutions and citizens must be mutual, a perpetual motion. It must develop in a one-to-one relationship.
We have asked and are still asking citizens for many sacrifices, big, small, because – we said, we are all convinced – they are necessary to overcome the pandemic.
And the citizens offered a great response, a response of great responsibility, which demonstrated the greatness, the resilience, of our nation. By respecting the rules, by accepting to make the sacrifices required, you are showing that you place great trust in institutions as well.
Here, with today's vote, I am confident that the institutions will also know how to repay the trust of citizens, in order to put behind us as quickly as possible the serious act of irresponsibility that has plunged us into this condition of objective uncertainty.
I want to announce to the majority forces that support this Government that in the next few days I will ask you to complete the discussion already started to define a pact for the end of the term and agree together, in an atmosphere of full loyalty and trust, the conditions and the most useful forms for also strengthen the government team.
For my part, yesterday I already announced that, given the new challenges that await me this year, also the international commitments, which this year will be very dense and pressing, that I do not intend to maintain the delegation to agriculture if not strictly necessary and I will also make use of the faculty, which the law grants me, to designate a delegated authority of my trust, as the law prescribes, who can follow the daily work of women and men in the intelligence sector.
On this I address an invitation to everyone, I already addressed it yesterday to the parliamentarians of the House, let's avoid instrumental controversies involving the women and men of the intelligence sector. You are all parliamentarians, if you have doubts and perplexities, legitimate in democracy, indeed I invite you to take the initiative, but you have two possibilities: one, if the current regulation does not satisfy you, there is the path of a regulatory process for any changes; the second, if you have doubts about management profiles, there is a branch, Copasir. Contact your Copasir colleagues: they have an obligation to monitor and control.
For my part, I assure you of maximum availability and commitment to lead, with the contribution of all, this phase so decisive for the renewal of the country.
The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in his end-of-year message to the country said, “the trust we need is built like this: keeping the responsibilities of the institutions connected with the feelings of the people”.
If Parliament wants to give confidence to the Government, I assure you all and all citizens that not only will we continue to use all our energies, physical and intellectual, to carry out our task. But we will also add, as always, our hearts, because politics without “sympatheia”, that feeling of real sharing, remains a discipline without a soul.
We must build this new political bond, aimed at the parliamentary forces that have loyally supported the government and open to all those who care about Italy's destiny. I am willing to do my part.
Long live Italy.
Thanks.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/conte-al-senato-che-cosa-e-successo-fatti-commenti-e-approfondimenti/ on Tue, 19 Jan 2021 11:41:09 +0000.