Italy: against a backdrop of inflation, the worsening of social insecurity | Labor Force

As the loss of purchasing power continues to increase, demonstrations are multiplying in Italy, where a one-day general strike is planned for early December.

Concern and anger continue to mount in Europe over the rising cost of living, and Italy – which has just brought to power a coalition government of the right, including the extreme – is no exception. In October, year-on-year inflation reached its highest level since 1984, at 11.9 %. Energy prices meanwhile jumped 73.2 %, in October (over one year), after an increase of 44.5 % in September.

Adding up all the losses in purchasing power, everything happens as if the Italian workers and employees did not receive a thirteenth month, underlined in a press release the Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGIL). An even more serious situation for retirees, temporary workers, young self-employed people and the unemployed.

More and more Italians are showing their anger by publicly burning their energy bills. The protest, inspired by the British movement “ We don’t pay » and left Naples at the beginning of September, has since gone up along the peninsula to ignite many cities. At the beginning of October, in Rome, a demonstration took place against the rise in the cost of living and the speculation of the energy companies. The online platform We won’t pay ”, which has some 35,000 subscribers, hopes to reach one million subscribers by the end of the month and set up a payment strike in Italy.

In addition, the Italian trade unions are planning a one-day general strike on December 2 to make the population’s cry of alarm heard. FO fully supports their initiative and will try to produce a snowball effect in France, exposes Branislav Rugani, FO confederal secretary for the international sector. A union of European struggles can only be achieved through this slogan, for wages and against inflation.

A solidarity income threatened with suspension

At the same time as it claims to strengthen support measures for households and businesses, the government of Giorgia Meloni promises to reduce the Italian public debt (150.3 % of GDP in 2021). Some of the measures envisaged raise questions, such as the introduction of a flat rate tax, which runs counter to the principle of tax progressivity.

And other paradoxes exist concerning supposedly social measures. Thus, the Prime Minister displays the idea of ​​​​lowering the retirement age, which according to a 2011 reform was to increase in 2023 from 64 to 67 years. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has already offered to find the billion euros in funding needed suspending citizenship income for six months [un revenu minimum pour les plus pauvres, NDLR] for the 900,000 beneficiaries who are able to work and who have already been receiving it for eighteen months. And this, while the CGIL warns of the worsening of precariousness in the country: 5.6 million poor, the highest peak in the last fifteen years, and 14.9 million people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, i.e. 25.4 % Population.