Calenda: “I wrote to Meloni, on the minimum wage he receives the opposition”

“I wrote to Giorgia Meloni a little while ago”, announces Carlo Calenda. “I sent her the proposal on the minimum wage, with some international benchmarks and I asked her to receive the opposition without prejudice to talk about it. You know that we at Action are not ideological, that we can reason on the merits, as we have already done many times on other measures “.

And did he answer?
“Not yet. But I hope it does. I also asked her to divert the Pnrr funds that we don’t know how to spend on industry 4.0, extended to energy and the environment. We’ve already found the covers. In principle he would agree, but unfortunately nothing happens in Italy”.

But at least the oppositions, on wages, have compacted.
“That’s right. We are the only G7 country that does not have it. We have 3.5 million people in working poverty, mostly young people and women. Inflation hits the poor hardest and depends in part on corporate profit margins. So there is room for companies to pay workers more. We owe answers to those who have national contracts today, which are in part fake contracts, because they are not signed by the most representative trade unions. All of Europe is questioning itself on this issue: Macron has raised the minimum wage to 11.5 euros, Germany to 12. In Italy I say: if not now when? The final proposal is good, it doesn’t have wage indexation to inflation, it provides for 12 months to update national contracts, it only sweeps away the pirated ones, such as those of false coops”.

However, Minister Calderone said yesterday: it is not done by law.
“I give the minister some information: there is no other way, except by law. Otherwise it wouldn’t be called the statutory minimum wage. With the parties free to negotiate, but without going under a figure that guarantees the dignity of the worker. I hope that a dialogue can be opened with the majority”.

And the opposition on what else can unite? On public health?
“Yes, as long as it is not a slogan, “we defend health”, but going into the merits. On salary, for example, I called Elly some time ago and said: we have a proposal, let’s talk about it. Then we worked very well with Cecilia Guerra. On healthcare, we have made a proposal to eliminate waiting lists in one year and other more structural reforms. I forwarded them to Schlein. The point is whether there is a desire to discuss how: the main problem is the shortage of doctors and nurses. And I think it was criminal that Meloni did not take the health mes “.

On the minimum wage there is Conte’s first signature, problems?
“But we’re not in kindergarten. Whoever wants to sign it, be it Giovanni or Paolo. In public debate we always end up talking about names, like Minister Roccella even for those of cats. While three pillars such as decent work, health and education are going down the drain”.

You say: the wide shot doesn’t exist anyway.
“The only wide field was Conte 2, a sesquipedal disaster. I have not been part of it and do not intend to be part of it in the future. Our goal is to make Italians understand that right and left do nothing but raise the tone without doing anything. We are republicans, in the sense of finding ourselves in the republican spirit of the first part of the Constitution that Draghi was talking about. Conte is then cut off from the European institutional panorama, due to his position on Ukraine and Grillo’s on China. Not even the Greens take it. We work on the themes”.

Renzi is the only one in the opposition who has not signed the text…
“He doesn’t sign it but votes for it, only he understood the difference”.

Is it true, as Bonelli said, that you and Conte didn’t want a press conference on salaries with a group photo of leaders?
“I’ve never even seen Bonelli at the table. We have decided to present the proposal at parliamentary level, precisely because we are not a political coalition”.

Off topic, on the government: should Santanché resign if indicted?
“He must resign if he is unable to explain what happened. Indictment has no criminal value. On the other hand, the lack of public ethics is different: if there is one and it is serious, he must resign”.