No to the flat tax, but dialogue and negotiation on the main dossiers. Parla Sbarra (Cisl)

“The country needs shared choices and cohesion”, says the general secretary of the CISL. Taxation, pensions, health care, the fight against the cost of living, minimum wage, contracts, superbonus. Interview

Taxation, pensions, health care, the fight against the cost of living, minimum wage, contracts, superbonus. On the main dossiers, the government seems to be stuck. “He appears concentrated on other priorities – Cisl general secretary Luigi Sbarra explains to Il Foglio – He seems more inclined to defend himself and reply to the opposition’s attacks, instead the country needs shared choices and cohesion. It is an illusion to think you are self-sufficient or bask in polls. Honeymoons end, beyond the value of governments. The reforms remain”. There is, therefore, above all a choice of method, that is, “reviving a responsible confrontation, re-establishing dialogue and building together”.
Sbarra does not deny the profound differences, starting with the tax reform: “It is not done with unchanged balances. We are against solutions that reduce progressiveness and do not respond to a principle of strong redistribution in support of the middle and working-class groups”. The great bone of contention is the flat tax. “It doesn’t convince us because it produces a reallocation of wealth from the bottom up, reversing the principle of solidarity. In the first place, we need to reduce taxes for workers and pensioners, also compensating for the 100 billion abyss produced every year by tax evasion”. On pensions we hear people say let’s do it like in France. Sbarra warns against improper parallels. “The French are protesting against a provision imposed without ever having opened a confrontation, not even of a parliamentary nature. Here we have tables started, and no minister has yet dreamed of closing to the union’s proposals. In the first meetings we were told exactly the opposite. We need to combine 41 years of contributions with a personal data that ensures the right to leave work with dignity: we say 62 years “.