Matteo Salvini’s promise: “No more continuous strikes”

Matteo Salvini, vice-president of the Council and leader of the League, also arrives on the last day of Atreju, the Fratelli d’Italia event. Interviewed by journalists on the sidelines of the event, he focused on some points on the political agenda. From the issue of the MEE, on whose approval, explains Salvini, «I continue to believe that Parliament will decide. I haven’t changed my mind. Furthermore, I expressed my idea: that a pensioner, a precarious worker, possibly having to pay to save a German bank does not seem to me to be the center of our attention and our policy”. As for the position that the League will take, he refers to the key moment: “Let’s see how much we vote”. Regarding the Stability Pact, another very complicated negotiation point, he observes: “The Minister of Economy, in whom I have complete confidence, is working on it”. Then there is the issue of government, on which, as reiterated today by allies, “there is a compact team. In my opinion, I hope to return concreteness to Italy and the center-right: public contracts code, highway code, small and large infrastructures, an end to the continuous strike.”

From the stage, then, the Minister of Infrastructure allows himself to joke about Elly Schlein, leader of the Democratic Party: «The premise is that we intend to govern this country together for a long time and if the alternative is Schlein we are condemned to govern for twenty years. God keep Schlein in charge of the Democratic Party”, he jokes. He then moves on to the most debated points of his role as minister: the right to strike, he says, “is sacrosanct and defended by the Constitution, but the honor and burden of a political government is to dictate why the country cannot be blocked every day . week with a 24-hour strike and Landini will accept that.” As for the process of infrastructural modernization, “there is a bridge that will have to do justice to millions of Sicilians who may be linked to the rest of Europe”, he states in reference to the work in the Strait of Messina. And further: «It will be the emblem of Italian engineering, Italian engineers are the best in the world, we will bring them back to Italy to design, build and unite. When Landini said that the bridge over the Strait of Messina should not be built, I committed to working an extra hour because it is the government’s duty to unite Italy from north to south.” And he reserves an ironic blow for the CGIL leader: «For me, Landini’s opinion is a light: it always shows us what we shouldn’t do». Then there is also the question of who tries to prevent these works from being carried out: «Tomorrow (today’s ed.) I will be in Piedmont: there are some anarchists and social centers who have challenged the government to block the major works. It will not be four anarchists who will stop the TAV and the center-right government.” Finally, a look at the reforms: «The reform to give more strength and powers to the central government elected by the citizens is in perfect harmony with the autonomist history and federalist League to give more powers and freedom to the territories. These are two things that combine perfectly and will make us stronger.”