The CGIL returns to the streets and is already making an appointment for the next mobilization: it will be a general strike on November 20th. It will be the union's fifth in a row in times of maneuver by the Meloni government. The general secretary Maurizio Landini from the event in Rome promoted together with the Via Maestra, which also sees the big names of the broad field parade - there is no shortage of the embrace with the secretary of the PD Elly Schlein and the exchange of words with the M5s leader Giuseppe Conte - immediately makes it clear that he does not intend to stop and relaunches. To give a future to young people and to the country, we need to give the necessary answers, "not electoral hustlers", he says, attacking the Meloni government: answers starting from the next budget law. The date of the general strike coincides with that of the European mobilization of students, who in the meantime crowd the procession through the streets of Rome.
"We are more than 100 thousand, there are so many of us who speak to the country from this square. It's time to take the floor again", Landini begins from the stage set up in Piazza del Popolo, while the tail end of the procession is still in Piazza della Repubblica. Schlein, Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli of Avs (who for the occasion wears a Fiom helmet for the occasion) listen to him under the stage, Conte is among the demonstrators. Meanwhile, the common thread is the defense of the Constitution, healthcare and public schools, the environment, decent work, the wages of Italians "forgotten by Giorgia Meloni's government, as is the industry of this country", says Schlein arriving at the demonstration. Moreover, the menu of the union and of the over one hundred lay and Catholic associations that make up the Via Maestra, mobilized under the slogan "Work, peace, environment, welfare, Constitution", is varied.
The requests range from increasing wages and pensions to the fight against precariousness, to the appeal to put an end to victims at work - "a war at home with three deaths a day" - to no to investments in weapons but in healthcare, education and housing. With an eye always turned to the defense of democracy and the Charter, because - this is the leitmotif - it must be implemented and not changed. He does not fail to echo the no to the electoral law. The theme of taxation is central: from the stage Landini relaunches the patrimonial law on great wealth: the CGIL does the math and proposes a solidarity contribution of 1% on those with a net worth over 2 million - an audience of 500 thousand taxpayers - which would allow the recovery of 25-26 billion to be allocated for example to the health, school and rent chapters. And, another strong point, he asks to intervene on the fiscal drainage, returning to employees and pensioners "the 4.5 billion stolen" this year, which is added to the 30 billion paid more between 2022 and 2025. In short, it is his position, we need to change economic and social policies and give the answers in maneuver. Moreover, "what we see seems to me to be quite disgusting", Landini attacks again: "Now we are here to give a voice to the majority of this country who can't take it anymore". In a square that unites young people and workers, from the former Ilva to Electrolux, farmers and hauliers, "against a high cost of living that does not allow us to move forward". The focus therefore remains on young people and the new generations with the aim of "making ourselves available to this democratic process of change which places work, rights and social justice at the centre". Because "we want to remain a democratic parliamentary Republic founded on work and social justice; not an authoritarian third Republic, founded on the market and the exploitation of labor", is Landini's other thrust reserved for Arianna Meloni, sister of the prime minister and head of the political secretariat of Fratelli d'Italia.
