at the congress the first time of a right-wing leader – Corriere.it

Not much, but he courted her a little. Maurizio Landini didn’t limit himself to sending an invitation to the Prime Minister to participate in the CGIL congress, as always happens. But he phoned Giorgia Meloni to show her that it was not precisely a matter of a standard invitation. The CGIL dialogues with everyone, without prejudice, the union secretary explained to the prime minister, in view of the meetings in Rimini, from 15 to 18 March. Meloni took some time, then the two resented it, finally she communicated that she was going.

The appointment on Friday the 17th

On Friday 17th all the spotlights will therefore be on the first prime minister of a centre-right government who will speak at the congress of the historic trade union of the Italian left

. Only three premiers have spoken in the 18 congresses celebrated by the CGIL in its history: Giovanni Spadolini, Bettino Craxi and Romano Prodi. But it was another era, in which the union was an essential interlocutor for the parties and the government. Then there was the disintermediation phase, strongly desired by Matteo Renzi who, not surprisingly, although invited, did not participate in the 2014 congress, just as Giuseppe Conte declined the invitation to the 2019 one in which Landini was elected. This time, however, there will be a full house. A round table will take place on Thursday 16, moderated by Lucia Annunziata, which will bring together the new secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, the head of the 5 Stars, Giuseppe Conte, and the leaders of Action, Carlo Calenda, and of the Italian Left, Nicola Fratoianni, as well as to Landini himself. In short, all the opposition which, after Schlein’s election as leader of the Democratic Party, is closest to the CGIL and is looking for ways to fight together.

Members who voted Brothers of Italy

But Meloni, evidently, has decided not to leave the field open to the left and to play his game in front of an audience of almost a thousand delegates representing 5.2 million members, half workers and half pensioners. Members among which there are those who in the last elections voted for the Brothers of Italy, if it is true that a part of the old voters of the League, who had gathered a strong following among the workers in recent years, have flocked to the tricolor flame. Only until a few years ago it would have been unthinkable, but the CGIL has also changed a lot. Suffice it to say that while all the previous secretaries were then elected from the ranks of the PCI and all the acronyms it then assumed, Landini was the first who could not be identified with a party. Definitely from the left, but from a broad and social left, which extends to the 5 Stars, and nobody knows who you are voting for. At the congress Landini will propose to Cisl and Uil a path of mobilization because the government does not listen to us and on precariousness, taxation, pensions, basic income it goes in the opposite direction to our positions. If he gets the opening of a negotiation from Meloni, Landini will claim it as a success. Otherwise he will call the square, until the general strike.