Giuseppe Conte, leader of the 5 Star Movement and former president of the Council of Ministers, will hold a press point in Campobasso at 1.15pm.
It is not the former prime minister’s first visit to Molise, who when he was head of Palazzo Chigi paid particular attention to our region, allocating tens of millions of euros to it with the Institutional Development Contract (CIS).
Conte, as is known, is originally from Volturara Appula, the center of the Foggia area which, as the crow flies, is just a few kilometers from the border with Puglia.
President Conte, the electoral campaign is coming to an end. Unlike the other leaders, he did not run for the European elections. Do you still think this choice is right?
«It is a choice that I claim with pride because those who – like Giorgia Meloni does – run for office and already know that they will not go to Brussels are deceiving the citizens and we do not want to do this. Politics is a serious thing, it must serve to help people and not delude them.
Those who vote 5 stars know exactly who they will send to the European Parliament and they are all mirrored and valid candidates, like Pasquale Tridico, Mario Furore and Maurizio Sibilio who are presenting themselves here in the South”.
If you had the chance, what would you change about current Europe?
«I think it’s clear to everyone that we are at a crossroads. Italians are called to choose between those who are only capable of sending weapons indefinitely, and are leading us towards a new world war, or those who want peace negotiations; between the new cuts imposed by Brussels, and approved by the Meloni government, and new investments in healthcare and the environment. Having many MEPs from the 5 Star Movement is the only guarantee of being able to reverse the course on which they are dragging us. Our parliamentarians are the only ones in Europe who vote against weapons and cuts which bring us back to a maneuver of tears and blood.”
War: do you fear an escalation? Are you still convinced that peace does not require the rearmament of besieged or occupied states?
«I am more and more convinced of this. This warmongering line is not bringing us anything good. The arms market has grown thanks to military escalation and we are increasingly closer to a Third World War. The only path that can lead to peace is that of diplomacy and negotiations.”
The Meloni government has abolished the Citizenship Income. Among the reasons supporting the choice is the difficulty in finding manpower. The “Income” is no longer there but the companies are experiencing the same difficulties.
«The lack of labor due to the citizen’s income is just one of the many lies told by the right to attack the poor. The INPS tells us that in the years in which the measure has been in force, seasonal workers have almost doubled. But what are we talking about? The job market has many other problems, starting with low wages and situations of serious exploitation that this majority deliberately ignores. Their ideological fury has only produced a record number of absolute poor: 5.7 million people in 2023. 8.2% of employees are in a state of total poverty but Meloni & Co. continue to oppose the legal minimum wage. This government has done nothing even on active policies. In 2019 we launched an extraordinary plan to strengthen employment centres: Molise was supposed to hire 75 new permanent workers by 2021, but as of 30 September 2023, according to data from the Ministry of Labour, it had not hired a single one . During the pandemic, every day these gentlemen asked for someone’s resignation, but they are the ones who should go home due to manifest incompetence.”
A judgment on the government in office?
«Meloni, despite saying she is a woman of the people, has been in politics for 30 years and the people have forgotten it. Public health doesn’t work and her government introduces new cuts; citizens are struggling with doubled mortgages and you prefer to safeguard the banks on which you have not imposed even 1 euro of tax on extra profits. In Italy we have almost 4 million underpaid workers and you refused to introduce the minimum wage which is instead a measure of civility because no one should earn less than 9 euros gross per hour. There is nothing new in Meloni’s way of governing, on the contrary: she is implementing old models that are once again impoverishing the country.”
In the 2022 Competition Bill, a good balance was achieved between the different demands of the seaside world. There is currently a lot of concern, even here in Molise. How do you evaluate the Meloni government’s work on this issue and what are the Movement’s proposals?
«In 2022 the 5 Star Movement gave impetus to the reform of state concessions included in the Competition Bill. Then a right point of collapse was found between the interests of companies, the State and workers: public tenders starting from 2024, with compensation paid to those who take over and protections for so-called “family businesses”, revision of fees (today negligible) and safeguard clauses for seasonal workers. That regulatory system was also voted for by Lega and Forza Italia, who then took everything back once they were in government with Meloni. Today the sector is in chaos: the Council of State has declared the renewals of concessions made by thousands of municipalities illegitimate, investments are at a standstill and at the beginning of June some beach activities have not even started yet. The Meloni government achieved nothing from its inconclusive negotiation with the EU, and Fratelli d’Italia even went so far as to raise a conflict of attribution for the Council of State. A political failure across the board: Meloni, with repeated mockery of entrepreneurs, is bringing to the brink of a precipice a sector that has always been the flagship of our tourism offering.”
Volturara Appula is a few kilometers from the Molise border. Since his first visit as Prime Minister he has always expressed appreciation for Molise. He also remembered when, as a young student, he crossed our region to reach the university in Rome. Over the years at the head of the government he has had considerable attention (see Cis) for this land. From his point of view, what is Molise missing to catch up with other regions?
«He says it right when he recalls the attention for Molise and the South. With the CIS created by my government we tried to overcome the more regional clientelistic logic to activate a bottom-up logic involving the mayors. Molise desperately needs a development policy that enhances the peculiarities of the territories, both orographic and infrastructural.
We need an industrial policy that is able to support other assets such as tourism and services and at the same time adapt the territories to infrastructures worthy of the name.
Let’s be clear: the road corridor that reconnects the coast with the interior and with Rome remains a priority but in the meantime we need to attract investments capable of supporting similar interventions, both temporally and financially.”
In Campobasso the Movement runs with the Democratic Party, with the Greens-Left and the socialists. A wide field but not very wide.
«It doesn’t matter how broad the field can be but how broad the sharing of themes and ideas for the city can be. And as you know, for the Movement the electoral program remains the main instrument for allowing citizens to control the functioning of politics.
This is enough to delimit the field and the alliances, an antidote for last-minute opportunists.”
Freedom of choice for territories for alliances. At a central level, however, do you believe that the time is ripe to define an organic agreement that will allow the right to be defeated?
“I reiterate that our main interest is to bring concrete and achievable solutions to improve the lives of citizens. Organic agreements are not made just to manage power, but on the basis of shared themes and objectives on which to work together.”
Luca Colella
