What will be the program of the Draghi government
Technical tests of the program for the Draghi government. The comment by Walter Galbusera of the Anna Kuliscioff foundation
Whatever the conclusion of the government crisis – given the mandate received by Mario Draghi at the Quirinale to try to form a new government – the political and social forces, in addition to acquiring and using European funds profitably, must also begin to discuss measures that we could euphemistically define as unpopular.
The Italian crisis has been dragging on for several years and we cannot blame the most critical issues solely on the most recent governments, but there is still a moment when we are dangerously approaching the breaking point that can overwhelm existing social balances and cause damage. very serious.
After the failure of the referendum project of 4 December 2016, the goal of making the country more governable has been substantially abandoned and we find ourselves with a questionable cut in the number of parliamentarians and with the temptation to return to a proportional electoral law that abandons the " majority vocations ”of right and left. What is missing is serious reflection on how to get out of a situation that seems to be leaking from all sides.
The only real convergence of parties and social forces, where national unity is truly found, is to vote for welfare measures, identifying the "Recovery Fund" as resources rained down from heaven and not as debts that we will owe, or rather the future generations will have to give back. Even the part of the subsidies, which weighs on the autonomous EU budget, will ultimately have to be financed by the Member States.
It is true that the PNRR , on which it is based on the Italian Recovery Plan, will sooner or later establish objectives consistent with the strategic plan of the EU, intermediate stages, and the effects of each individual measure on priorities and on the 'together, but today everything remains on the defensive and there are no credible overall visions capable of accelerating the recovery trend of an economy that is very slow to start and in the next two years seems to remain below 4% after the collapse (8.8%) of the 2020 GDP.
The alarm signals are multiplying, from the spread of our government bonds higher than those of Greece to the growing number of those who have lost their jobs or are looking for it (2,250,000 units) and more than 3 million Covid redundancies, to which are added self-employed workers affected by the crisis. But how to react?
It is enough to extend and refinance the layoffs and (meager) refreshments or it is also the time for an orderly management of the exit from the health emergency by returning to public and private investments, freed from the chains of bureaucracy, accompanying them with an active and incisive labor policy who knows how to make the most of our workforce "deposits", through effective training and professional retraining?
The last two governments have done very little in this regard other than taking measures, such as those of the "dignity decree" which have aggravated the situation. The major critical issue holding back development is not the amount of public debt, but insufficient productivity growth. It is not a question of re-proposing archaic models of labor exploitation, but of accompanying, in particular at the level of company bargaining, the spread of new technologies with an organization of work that rewards quality, and encourages professional growth.
The "short century" was crossed by two frightening war events but the way in which Europe came out of it was not the same: the first post-war period was marked by revolutions and nationalisms that destroyed even the fragile democracies inherited from the century the previous one, the second experienced a reconstruction, albeit painful, which gave a future to even the poorest classes and restored freedom and democracy. The latter is the model to which we must look by grasping the most current aspects. The freeze on layoffs after World War II was canceled at very high social prices. Today we have the opportunity to have resources and tools that make labor mobility less difficult. But we must hurry because the more time passes, the more difficult it is to guarantee a gradual relocation process. The social forces and, above all, the trade unions should favor this path. We must quickly reverse the trend and not remain in a wait-and-see position or, worse, only defensive, limiting ourselves to hurling anathemas against austerity or contemplating an unlikely cancellation of the debt of the States.
It is the EU itself that already foresees a return of the public debt from 2023 and the reduction of the annual budget deficits that the countries of the Union will have to start to apply. When in a few months we will start talking about active labor policies and the reorganization of social safety nets, pension reforms, property taxes, the review of real estate estimates or the reduction of tax deductions, the nightmare of "stepmother" Europe will return or will we begin to seriously reflect on the selective measures to be taken for a gradual but difficult and necessary return of public debt to sustainable levels? The EU places a condition for “Recovery” to implement some reforms which by definition cannot be without consequences. The digitization of the Public Administration will lead to the acquisition of new professional skills but will also lead to significant redundancies. Will it be possible to manage this situation through normal retirement paths? The school itself would need a radical change in the curricula, in the systems and in the organization of teaching that cannot be guaranteed only through new hires.
Without going into the merits of other serious critical issues, it is clear that the scenario is worrying and that results can be obtained, not in the short term, only with a constructive and coherent approach of all political and social forces to identify fair and effective measures. Avoiding a rhetorical reference to the government of national unity or public health if you prefer and beyond the salvific value that is attributed to the elections, it is quite clear that the subjects in the field are far from finding what in mathematics is called maximum common factor and which consists of a minimum necessary of shared objectives to return to growth. Goffredo Bettini, who is considered the gray eminence of the Democratic Party, gave his own interpretation of reality by indicating his party as a good elephant carrying some noisy tambourine players on his back. This elegant image is culturally not very far from the one, perhaps somewhat contemptuous, that Palmiro Togliatti gave in the fifties when, speaking of two dissident parliamentarians of the PCI (Cucchi and Magnani), he affirmed that even in the mane of a noble white horse they could there be two lice.
Regardless of how potential allies have taken it, perhaps Bettini has some reason but it is surprising that in the midst of an epochal crisis the only traditional party that survived the judicial media tsunami has the name as a completely legitimate priority. of the future head of the government while a political platform that indicates "change" (the reforms that the EU is also asking for) and how it is intended to achieve it remains shrouded in mists.
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/programma-governo-draghi/ on Wed, 03 Feb 2021 06:25:39 +0000.