Make a commitment

There are some who will remember what happened on 14 August. A cabinet meeting was hastily called to decide on urgent measures to save Italy from bankruptcy. Today, we seem to be in a different era. Back then, Renato Brunetta and Mara Carfagna, Maurizio Sacconi and Michela Brambilla, to name but a few, were in power. We now know the outcome. This week, the third budget policy is to be voted on.

The situation was dramatic, and the government had to dig deeply into the pockets of the Italians, despite its bleeding heart. This is what the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said. Now, it is a minister in the appointed government who is crying. What it is completely unclear, today, just as it was back then, is where the propriety of the MPs has gone.

The postponement, to a date that still has to be established, of any cut in ministers’ and senators’ salaries has raised endless debate. The reply of the Speaker of the Lower Chamber and of the President of the Senate is exemplary in its form. The institutional rules must be respected and division of powers is a part of democracy. They are right, and it is good that they remind us of this. However, it is a pity that, when words become deeds, things do not go so well. Populism is dangerous, this is what we have discovered after so many years that we thought it was the great idea, the Bible of those in power. But hypocrisy is even worse, not to mention the arrogance of the leaders who lie to us.

On 14 August we were going into bankruptcy, so why didn’t the MPs speed up their investigations to discover how much their European colleagues earn? Either the MPs are all so incompetent that they are unable to deal with the matter urgently, or they just don’t give a damn. And so, the divide that exist between the rulers and the rest of the country has become insurmountable. And this is very dangerous.

Democracy is also a luxury that we must afford. The work of MPs is essential for the life of our country. And so, the cost of politics is essential, but things need a bit of tidying up. It would take just a bit of common sense, the common sense of the father of a family, as our codes of law also state when talking about economics. Why is it that this concept holds true for law, but not for those who wield the power? MPs and senators, please act quickly, because it is not a "small" saving for the Country, or their reputations that are at stake, but the credibility of a system that cannot ask the people to make urgent and hard sacrifices while endlessly delaying a simple reduction in salaries, which are, nevertheless, high.

Well done to those MPs that have made explained their positions clear; well done to the honourable Pietro Ichino, Emanuele Fiano and Alessandro Bratti (strangely enough, they are all in the left-wing Partito Democratico; who knows what the others might be thinking). It may be, however, that something isn’t working so well. Questioning personal wealth achieved through ability and professionalism, is not a pleasant exercise, and we avoid it because this defeatism is extremely negative and leads us nowhere, but really, the distance is becoming too wide. These ladies and gentlemen, esteemed professionals and politicians, earn between €70,000 and €250,000 a year. It is not exactly what 90% of the Italians earn. But what is even more worrying is the sloppiness and ignorance of so many ladies and gentlemen who sit at the benches in the upper and lower chambers.

Our task will be to observe and report on how at least the politicians in our province behave. It is not out of parochialism, but out of territorial competence that there is newspaper like ours. It might not seem much, but this is as far as we can go, and we will. It is not a threat, but a promise, as we are convinced that our MPs and regional counsellors are sufficiently skilled to do their task.