“Our square? No to an unjust law. Employees will be poorer»- Corriere.it

Graziano Delrio, why did the Democratic Party decide to take to the streets?

«Because it must be very clear that it is an absolutely insufficient and, above all, unjust maneuver. We wink at tax evaders with amnesties and at the same time fail to substantially reduce taxes on labour, when with inflation at 12 per cent all employees will become poorer. It is a maneuver that is very worrying because it does not go to the heart of the country’s problems, of the economic and social crisis. It is an electoral manifesto to give a sop to some categories but lose sight of the people. And therefore it is right to publicly explain to the Italians what our positions are because we are ready to accept confrontation with the government even in the squares, always civilly of course”.

It is striking that the CGIL, which went on a general strike against Draghi, is much more cautious while you go to the square.

«We want to underline the fact that with this maneuver the country will become more unfair. The power of wages decreases drastically because this cut in the tax wedge is substantially the continuation of the previous one with a small addition, while, as Confindustria said, and therefore not some dangerous revolutionary committee, a much more determined choice was needed. Want another example? When you, instead of continuing with Draghi’s personal income tax reform, which was already in place and which would have redistributed the money to the lowest incomes, make a flat tax of 85,000 euros, increasing the gap between the self-employed and employees, you are making this country more unfair. There is no structural and serious reform. It is a maneuver that lacks vision for example on the ecological transition and courage, even if they have had years to prepare. Moreover, it is a maneuver that does not even stimulate growth and work. After that it’s clear that the real confrontation is in Parliament, it’s not that we suddenly become a party that makes the square or populism its hallmark. There is no contradiction with our position which is always a reformist and serious position».

Does the war of the squares start again with Conte?

«We did not call this event to mark a difference from the others. We don’t obsess over other oppositions as they often do; we are looking at what happens to citizens, their problems. Employees will become poorer, businesses will not have any kind of help to continue investing, and the very serious thing is that with this inflation rate, public rights, education, health care and transport are effectively cut “.

Conte has invited you to his demonstration: will you go there?

«We are against the abolition of the anti-poverty income, because even if no one remembers it, we introduced it with the inclusion income. After all, the minimum wage proposal is also ours: in the much reviled Jobs act there was the delegation of the minimum wage. These are common battles: we, I repeat, are not obsessed with distinguishing ourselves from them. The government’s battle against basic income, which, as always said, has many flaws, is very wrong. War must be waged against poverty, not the poor. In any case, I’m not afraid of Conte’s square, on the contrary; I repeat, it’s not a competition to see who builds the most beautiful square, it’s a competition to defend the weaker classes».

But he didn’t answer: he didn’t say whether you will participate or not.

“I don’t even know if it’s actually summoned. We’ll see if we go from announcements to facts. We do our part and we don’t criticize others when they do theirs.”

Delrio, is there really nothing that saves from this maneuver?

“The strengthening of our reform on the single check is positive, even if it is little money, because it still strengthens the most important reform made against child poverty as shown by Istat data”.