Labour: failed blitz on fixed-term contracts, amendment withdrawn

The Senate Budget Committee has concluded its examination of the Economic Bill, voting the mandate to the rapporteurs Dario Damiani (FI), Lavinia Mennuni (FdI) and Elena Testor (Lega), to report back to the Chamber where the measure is scheduled to be debated today, Wednesday 30 July. Numerous changes were approved during the night session. As the report shows, these include the rapporteurs' amendments on the Milan-Cortina company, on the extension of the Inail network (with the reformulation proposed by Marco Dreosto, Lega), on culture, on resources for local broadcasters (as reformulated by the proposal of Massimiliano Romeo, Lega) and on Lampedusa and Linosa. On the other hand, other amendments were withdrawn by the rapporteurs, including the one on temporary work, on the superbonus for the third sector, on the timing of the decree for the extra VAT, on the Commission for financial education and on overtime for the employees of the Revenue and Monopolies Agencies and of the MEF.

The amendment with the additional allocation of EUR 30 million for the guarantee fund for first homes should also have been approved.

On Tuesday 29 July, the blitz attempted by the centre-right on an issue particularly dear to the League failed. The amendment on term contracts, officially presented by the majority rapporteurs, was withdrawn in the Senate. 'The Ministry of Labour will find another way,' the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Melonian Luca Ciriani, limited himself to saying. Instead, the amendment that re-proposes the extension for the company that will manage the infrastructure related to the 2026 Olympics in Milan-Cortina remains. This is the centre-right's half backward march on the decree summarily renamed the 'economy decree', after the opposition's polemics. Controversy arose last week when the amendment on the next Winter Olympics had been proposed by the leghists. The same text, but on another measure in the Chamber (the sports decree), was then removed.

Accomplices, then, were the Quirinale's perplexities, which today are said to have been overcome, also because the subject matter appears similar and more in line with the maxi economic decree. This time the changes bear the signature of the majority rapporteurs (Dario Damiani of Forza Italia, Livia Mennuni of Fratelli d'Italia and Elena Testori of the League). But they infuriate the opposition, which in the morning demanded their withdrawal.

In particular, behind the correction on temporary workers there would be the imprinting and pressing of the League: among the allies circulates the name of the undersecretary of Labour, Claudio Durigon. In any case, the majority is willing to 'find an understanding' with the opposition, Ciriani had anticipated. And indeed, after the withdrawal, the possibility of moving it to another, more targeted measure prevails in the government. But without haste and in any case after the summer break, executive sources reveal.