Criticisms, advice and requests on school, energy, environment, Mes, major works and secret services in the letter sent by Renzi to Conte before the meeting scheduled for Thursday 17 December
The situation is serious, President. We have the highest number of Covid deaths in Europe. It is useless to continue with the rhetoric of “everything is fine”. Despite the dedication and quality of our doctors, nurses, pharmacists, volunteers, we are unfortunately on the top step of this tragic podium. We must not blame the citizens who have followed the instructions of the Government with discipline but we must reflect on what went wrong, starting with the difficult relationship between the State and Regions. We supported Your measures, even when we did not share them, because in a terrible phase of emergency we cannot be divided. We can only hope that the delays of tampons or wheeled benches will not be repeated on the vaccine: Italy must be in the forefront for efficiency in distribution.
Now let’s try not to be the worst on economic recovery as well.
We, President, want to lend a hand on the contents. Because at stake are ideas, not government posts. Teresa, Elena, Ivan – who have worked well on agriculture, families and gender policies, exports – are ready to resign tomorrow, if needed. In fact, we do not conceive of politics as occupation of posts. We don’t make a living, we want to change. A folding seat is not enough, we want politics.
Let’s take advantage of this opportunity. Let’s decide together what is Italy’s place in the new world of Biden’s America and the new Europe. And how we position ourselves in front of the great challenges of the Peace of Abraham and of the Asian century.
We really invest in environmental sustainability. But this does not mean always calling up only the super bonus of 110%. Eni, Enel, Snam, Saipem are world leaders in their sector. How to create green jobs
How to relaunch the circular economy starting from extraordinary successful experiences also in Italy, perhaps linking them to public utilities
How to guide the COP26 process that Biden has entrusted to Kerry while we in Italy have a stew of skills between Environment, Farnesina and Chigi
Yet it is up to us to lead COP26 this year. I remember what Hollande did when I hosted the leaders in Paris in 2015: how we are preparing
The great challenge of hydrogen, the planting of new trees, the fight against hydrogeological instability, new technologies at the service of sustainability: you will find us passionate about this and ready for discussion.
The EU Next Generation is not a basket of free resources that we can all draw on with both hands, with fragmented distribution criteria. The resources are constrained in numerous dimensions: the destination, the timing, the results, the system reforms that accompany the expenditure. It is not a fund of 209 billion, because the non-repayable transfers are about 82 billion. The rest are loans, and therefore amount to debt resources. Although with two differences: they will cost less than our traditional debt and the relationship with private investors is mediated by the community budget.
What is the point of spending 88 of the 127 billion of European loans just to finance projects that already existed
We have a vision or we have just emptied the drawers of ministries with the old proposals
We think we have no good ideas to cultivate today
What happened to Colao’s documents that you had involved with great media coverage
You have read the many excellent contents that civil society is sending you, starting with M&M which brings together a good group of professionals who know the State and which I am attaching to you for convenience
There are projects that they would need to take all 128 billion in loans. Your government, the Mef, has decided to use only 40 billion for new projects: sure that this is the right choice
We think that if there are good ideas, this is the time to finance them. He gets into debt
. Of course. But the only way to fight debt and growth, not subsidies.
In this sense, we play the infrastructure card. Our Shock Plan was approved in words only. The slowness is not only bureaucratic but also political, the result of indecision. President, it doesn’t matter to be Keynesians to understand that the only way to grow is public and private investment. Why the Gronda does not start in Genoa
We are still victims of the ideology of those who, like Beppe Grillo, wanted to send the army to block it
And again: in the plan that we have carefully read, many works are inexplicably discarded. First of all, the subways starting with the continuation of lines B1 and C in Rome and Metro 5 in Milan. But there is still a lot to do – both in the North with Venezia Trieste – and in the South where between the missing lots of the SS106 and the high speed Salerno Palermo there are still ten billion ready to invest. Money that creates jobs, not citizenship income. And that make GDP much more than many other choices.
In August, your Minister, Patuanelli, asked Professor Cingolani, former founder of the IIT of Genoa and one of the world’s leading experts in innovation, to contribute with a document that Cingolani then sent to five other ministers on digital. Personally I believe that everything that Cingolani writes, from artificial intelligence to cyber security, is full of ideas of great interest and ready to become a project that can be financed in Brussels. It is clear that real professionals are needed on these issues. We cannot afford the foolishness we have made even just in managing INPS sites during the pandemic because a country that wants to build the future with digital and then relies on the logic of the click day shows an irremediable contradiction.
And how is it possible to put only nine billion on healthcare
In three years my government has put in seven billion more, without a pandemic: still today the Five Stars define this greater investment of seven billion in three years as “cuts”. After a pandemic and with exceptional resources we only put nine billion in five years
And how can we say NO to the ESM which has less conditionality than the Recovery Fund
What is the reason for our refusal
Our parliamentarians have proposed a precise allocation of the 36 billion of the ESM. How can you say no to investments in healthcare, dear President
If we are in an emergency and we have the largest number of deaths in Europe, perhaps we need to invest more in healthcare, don’t you think?
This ideological rejection of the ESM appears to me more and more incomprehensible every day.
By recovering the money from the ESM, we can allocate the nine billion originally foreseen for healthcare on a sector that is decisive for our future: culture and tourism. We must stop with a nineteenth-century vision of museums and theaters, as if these can be considered mere divertissements for bored gentlemen: they are the basis of our identity. And the professionals who work there deserve to be treated as such: the operators of culture are not those “who make us have fun” but those who remind us who we are, why we live, why we love, why we are still capable of dreaming. If Italy puts only 3 billion on culture and tourism in front of a 200 billion plan, we are losing ourselves. President, do you have any idea how hotels, restaurants, cities of art, operators are suffering
Because it is the human factor that is decisive. And this leads us to remind you of the responsibilities we all have about school. For two months our children have not been to school anymore: it is a tragedy, President, a tragedy. The responsibilities of the Regions exist, of course; those of public transport not organized in time; the grave mistake of having closed the mission unit on school buildings that today everyone says they want to reopen. But there is a fact: our children have lost a year compared to the German or French boys. Because they keep schools open, unlike us. It is a heritage of lost skills, of lost relationships, of broken humanity. Over the years we will measure the psychological damage for this generation condemned to loneliness in a season in which relationship is everything. But now we are working to reopen the schools. The Germans and the French are no better than us: if they managed the school emergency in time, let’s try to do it too. We acknowledge that swabs and vaccines are needed, not wheelchair benches and self-certifications. Distance learning, President, is a defeat for everyone. But for us, politicians and parents, it is a double defeat.
By its nature, it is a production area aimed at generating social value in many areas of general interest with the main characteristic of the absence of profit, where the care and taking in charge are carried out in socio-health assistance activities. , education and training, culture, sport, environment and enhancement of the territory and common goods.
And this leads us to reflect on the real emergency of this season: the employment crisis. When the prohibitions on firing are lifted, we will experience a season of unprecedented crisis. We very much appreciated that you have chosen the path of decontribution, a pillar of that Jobs Act which has been unjustly criticized but which has made it possible to create over a million jobs. And yet the deduction is not enough. Well the choice to focus on Industry 4.0, an initiative that is due to the ministers of my government Guidi and Calenda. But there is also and above all an industrial policy that cannot be delegated to the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti alone. A coherent industrial policy, from steel to motorways, but inspired by a non-populist vision. It is capable of creating jobs, not subsidies. For Italy to truly become a democratic republic founded on work. And not on citizenship income.
Let me say that the mayors must be challenged on urban transformation projects as we did with the suburbs plan. If you give the money, it goes into the current expense. Put the money at the disposal of the municipalities who have the projects ready and the music changes. The philosophy of mending has inspired the restarting projects of many cities that are changing today. We make a fund available to the mayors, leaving it to the cities to spend them on investments: from the Rome of the 2025 Jubilee to the small mountain town, our first citizens must be supported on real development projects.
Finally a note on the past: you often cite previous Governments as part of the Problem. If you are referring to the experience of the yellow-green government, we are with you: the mistakes made, starting with quota100, are still a heavy inheritance for the public accounts. But if you are referring to ours for the sole purpose of reaffirming the truth, I am attaching the study by Professor Fortis on the period 2014-2017. Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas.
We told you, dear President, that we have made a government to avoid Salvini’s full powers. We will not entrust them to others. The insistence with which you do not open up to a majority debate on the role of the Delegated Authority is inexplicable. Intelligence belongs to everyone, it is not someone’s private structure: for this reason we ask you to indicate an authoritative name to manage this sector. I made use of the institutional collaboration of Minniti, Monti worked with De Gennaro, Berlusconi with Letta: you cannot work with yourself in this sector too.
You always asked us to be transparent and to say things out in the open.
As you can see, we do it animated only by one desire: that Italy will return to racing.
We want to talk about these topics and we are ready to discuss these issues.
(EXTRACT FROM THE LETTER SENT BY RENZI A CONTE: HERE THE FULL VERSION)
