In the bullfight of the economic maneuver, like a bold bullfighter in the pension arena, the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti delivers the final banderilla. The plant on strenuous jobs and precocious workers. A clean shot, no frills: the Fund drops from 233 to 194 million, the exit windows widen, people withdraw later. Blood and contributions. Olé! Applause among the accountants of the Mef and the technocrats of Brussels, desperation among those who were counting the days for the longed-for rest.
Therefore the wall raised by the lieutenants of the League, his party, against the cuts to the redemption of the degree and the increase in the windows that he had created, the previous banderilla on pensioners to move from the Fornero reform to the “turbo Fornero”, did not intimidate him at all. After all, the minister, between one maneuver and another, has arrived at the 29th budget law, as he fleetingly explained to reporters in the Senate with a touch of pride mixed with disdain. He has no intention of resigning, thanks to the esteem of the so-called “strong powers” starting with Mario Draghi. His mantra: everything must be carried out “with unchanged balances”, which contrasts with Salvini’s mantra repeated for 14 years: we will abolish the Fornero law. But we have to make ends meet, repeats the minister, who almost never gives interviews (his press secretary doesn’t even bother to answer the phone) and chooses himself – on those rare occasions when he feels like it – who to entrust his word to, usually a government paper.
An atypical Northern League supporter, this Giorgetti, a Bocconian from Cazzago Brabbia, 778 souls in the province of Varese, the land of Bossi and poor Bobo Maroni, cultured, competent and prepared, a Northern League supporter from the very beginning. Northern League member? Yes, well, but… This determination to transform the acquired rights of workers into budget variables, to be cut with a scalpel, in line with the most extremist European technocrats and the most obstinate MEF officials, causes quite a few stomach aches among the first and second-hour Northern League supporters. Giorgetti only thinks about the rating, he trusts the technocrats in Brussels too much, it is said. Sometimes he seems like a minister from a “frugal” country, like Holland or Luxembourg. It is true that there has always been a League of struggle and one of government, Umberto Bossi said, but not of struggle and government Draghi! And then balance sheets, as the old Prosperini, accountant, former minister and also an early member of the Northern League would say, are the most creative thing that can exist. A bit of imagination, for goodness’ sake, would add former minister Tremonti! Everyone knows that behind the budget numbers there are men of flesh and blood. Even Prime Minister Giorgia said it when she was in opposition (“the rating? It is decided by private agencies, which look after private interests, the state debt can easily ignore the rating”).
This government does not seem to show great attention towards the base of the Northern League people. Let’s take those who, after a life of exhausting toil, hope to rest in peace: heavy vehicle drivers, bricklayers, warehouse workers struggling with the forklift for 40 years, chain line workers, miners, blast furnace workers, people who started very young among toxic paints, breaking their backs. Maybe some of them even went to the sacred lawn of Pontida to applaud and now discover that they still have to eat grass before retiring. The executive has also decided to eliminate the possibility of combining complementary pensions with public pensions to advance the old-age pension, a rule that should have guaranteed flexibility and which is instead sacrificed to recover over 130 million euros by 2035. Between one banderilla and another we are now the country with the highest retirement age in Europe. So the secret is to live long and above all healthy. Northern League voters remember these things and we’ll vote soon. Salvini, the one who “I authorize you to ridicule me if we don’t cancel the Fornero law” and who had even sent the Northern League supporters to the house of the then minister, now seems to no longer speak to Giorgetti, fearful that in the next political elections a Totò-style raspberry will arise from Bolzano to Marsala. But Giancarlo Giorgetti of Cazzago Brabbia wanted to demonstrate yesterday that the minister is there. He appeared in the Budget Committee this morning. Between tiredness and fatalism he said that for him resignation is an idea that comes back “every morning” but he doesn’t resign. And therefore he knows that the chaos generated by the old maxi-amendment that he himself presented is “natural”. A naturalness, one might say, a bit anomalous. For Giorgetti, “only the final product” counts. At this point the only form of resistance could be what hit Giorgetti’s counterpart, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, banned from her favorite pub due to tax increases. Therefore the pensioners are in the hands of the local bar in Cazzago Brabbia, in the Varese area, where the minister recovers on weekends to forget his worries in Rome. It seems that Salvini is probing the manager.
