The CISL’s independent and reformist proposal for the post-election period

Whilst political parties are currently drawing up their manifestos for 2027 with sensational proposals to mobilise voters, there are those, such as the CISL, who are looking to the future with a project that seeks to tackle the country’s underlying problems. Yesterday, the trade union confederation’s Executive Committee unanimously approved the “Libro verde per il Patto sociale”, a document of over 50 pages, the result of collaboration between the union and external experts. The picture is clear in the introduction: “Italy is at a crossroads. Weak productivity and growth are keeping wages stagnant; demographic decline is jeopardising production capacity and the sustainability of the welfare system; and young people and women remain a largely untapped resource. Meanwhile, the digital revolution, artificial intelligence, the ecological transition and a new wave of globalisation are profoundly reshaping society and the labour market.”

The aim is to shift the focus of public debate from short-term issues to the challenges facing the near future. However, the document is not a list of demands to be included in the manifestos of the various political parties, as is usually the case in the run-up to elections. “We do not want to present the country with a closed document, but rather a platform open to discussion. A genuine social agenda that we are proposing to the government, to the social partners, and to the rather uninspiring debate of these first heated months of the election campaign,” explained CISL General Secretary Daniela Fumarola.

In summary, the CISL’s Green Paper is an open platform, though this does not mean it is undefined. Its contours, which are fairly clear, are those of a reformist proposal. And, above all, an independent one. Therefore, it has no direct or recognisable party affiliation. Across the eleven chapters into which the more than 120 proposals are divided, one can clearly distinguish proposals that may appeal to the centre-left but not to the centre-right, and vice versa.

On the issue of collective bargaining, the CISL’s stance – which echoes the trade unions’ long-standing position – is one of opposition to the ‘minimum wage’ (which is one of the main proposals from the broad coalition) and of reviving decentralised bargaining by ‘evolving the 1993 framework with two contractual levels of equal standing’ (which is more in line with the centre-right’s views). On the other hand, the CISL endorses the ‘Start Tax’: a proposal from Italia Viva, subsequently supported by the entire centre-left, which provides for preferential personal income tax rates for young people. On the housing policy front, however, the CISL supports the Meloni government’s Housing Plan, whilst calling for increased funding. On the issues of women’s employment and the birth rate, the proposals are more in line with the views of Elly Schlein’s PD: equal parental leave and a shift in resources from cash bonuses towards strengthening services. There are also proposals put forward by all parties but which are difficult to implement, such as ‘mobilising household savings’ to make investments in Italy. And others that are unlikely to be realised, such as the request to the EU for an exemption from the Stability Pact for industrial investments, to be added to those for defence and energy.

A significant new development in the Green Paper is the shift in approach to the generational issue: there is much more discussion of young people than of pensions. The focus is therefore on housing, family welfare, tax relief for young people, active labour market policies, and personal training allowances. On the pensions front, however, there is substantial support for the Fornero reform, with some calls for minor adjustments or flexibility. 

Neither ‘pensions’ nor the dismantling of a pillar of the pension system such as the automatic adjustment of eligibility criteria to life expectancy, which is, in fact, part of the programmes of the broad coalition and the Lega.

The document is the result of a process of development by ‘CisLab’, where experts from the CISL network engaged in dialogue with external academics and professionals (Maurizio Del Conte, Francesco Giorgino, Sonia Malaspina, Marco Marcatili, Tommaso Nannicini, Elena Prodi, Emmanuele Massagli, Aldo Carera, Massimiliano Valerii and Marco Lai). The CISL’s Green Paper is, in essence, a demonstration of the trade union’s autonomy and an offer of dialogue to the political sphere and society at large. Yet its strength is also its limitation. It comes at a time of intense polarisation between the right and the left, and so there is a risk that the proposal, rather than striking a balance, will fall on deaf ears. The view in Via Po is that, if not now, then after the elections whoever is in Palazzo Chigi will need ideas to tackle the usual structural problems: at that point, the Green Paper will prove useful.