Throwing gasoline on the fire. To stir up tempers, stoking popular resentment. If Roberto Fico’s objective was to increase the level of tension in the South even more, the former mayor succeeded perfectly in his intention. The grillino, just two days ago, had gone to Naples. And he had fired zero at the government. Guilty of having stopped giving money to someone who has no intention of working or even looking for a job. «We must rebel against a cultural idea by which poverty and difficulty are attacked and we must leave the paradigm that this ideological right carries: whoever takes the basic income is a lazy person. The willingness to abolish the basic income is profane and does not take into account the difficulties in which so many people find themselves and live, not only here in Naples, but throughout Italy”. No sooner said than done. Yesterday, the words of one of the most important exponents of the Five Star Movement were followed.
In fact, during the morning, a procession formed in the center of the capital of Campania. The unemployed and people receiving basic income took to the streets. Men and women who gathered to protest the government’s decision to suspend the subsidy. “Rome We’re Coming”. This is the refrain, far from reassuring, punctuated by the participants of the event. And more insults to the Prime Minister: “Fuck Meloni”. Traffic on Corso Umberto was first blocked, then the more than two hundred people initially moved to Piazza del Gesù, the big snake then headed towards Santa Lucia, seat of the Campania Region. On the way, the demonstrators stopped at Piazza Municipio, at the port entrance and Via Depretis. Numerous anti-government slogans were chanted. Guilty of “wanting to kill the South”, of “not understanding the real situation in which we live in Campania” and, above all, of not knowing that work (at least according to the voters of Fico and the Five Star Movement) does not exist.
«From next month – one of those present had the audacity to say – I won’t be able to go shopping or pay the bills. All this because I would be employable, but they forget that serious and real work doesn’t exist here. It is hypocritical to abolish income without first assuring beneficiaries of the possibility of employment”. There were also some banners, in which the words “Basic income and work for all” stood out. Countless people showed the yellow card with which the basic income has been raised so far. The speech of one of the demonstrators is emblematic. «We send a signal of revolt to the whole country, we ask for a dignified and useful job. Until then, there should be guaranteed income and continuity until December. We fear that this government has annulled the basic income to increase the ranks of undeclared work, so that people are forced to sell themselves for 700 euros working 12 hours a day”.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
