Letters
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR •
The CGIL and the art of turning a tool for struggle into a means of positioning oneself
Who wrote to the editor-in-chief, Claudio Cerasa
20 OCT 26
Translated by AI
(Photo: Ansa)
To the Editor – The demonstrations and general strikes organised by the CGIL have now become a routine formality, on a par with the presentation of the DPFP and the DBP, as part of the procedures relating to the budgetary manoeuvre. This year, Maurizio Landini even managed to call a general strike before the government had presented the 2027 budget bill. This time, he did not even pretend to have any specific criticisms of the budget; nor did he even consider – as would be normal for a trade union – agreeing on a possible common platform with the other confederations with the aim of securing, in the current situation, improvements for workers. Landini’s sole concern is to campaign for the elections alongside his allies on the left.
Giuliano Cazzola
When an exceptional tool of protest is turned into an ordinary one, the current situation ensues: the call for action no longer makes the news. And if the call for a general strike ahead of a budget becomes just another routine event, it means that the trade union has succeeded in turning that tool into a ritual, much like the school occupations in the autumn. It may be the members of those very same trade unions—which have turned a powerful tool of struggle into a tool for political posturing—who should be demanding an explanation from those responsible for such a ‘masterpiece’.
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To the Editor – An Italian rapper, Coez, opens one of his songs with the line “amare te è facile come odiare la polizia”. The artist appears to be unfamiliar with Pasolini. Best regards.
Roberto Alatri
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To the Editor – Rather than a proletarian expropriation, what we witnessed in Milan was a bourgeois expropriation.
Michele Magno
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To the Editor – Bearing in mind what Il Foglio writes and given the growing number of shareholders and advisers who are opposing Montepaschi’s defensive move and supporting Intesa’s bid, would it not be a better course of action for the Chief Executive, Luigi Lovaglio, to take note of this and draw the appropriate conclusions? This would be both to avoid overshadowing the positive work he has done for the bank, and to devote all his energies to a bank’s raison d’être: namely, safeguarding savers’ funds and supporting the economy, households and businesses. Mergers certainly cannot become an absolute priority, as if a financial institution could not survive without them. Competition is not a league in which one must be top of the table, otherwise one does not count. The ability to accept even unfavourable results is a hallmark of a Banker (with a capital B), as demonstrated by the history of exceptional bankers who have distinguished themselves through their genius and the work they have carried out, starting with Raffaele Mattioli and Enrico Cuccia. These are role models who, especially today, should have much to teach those involved in operations such as those attempted by Lovaglio, albeit unsuccessfully. Best regards.
Angelo De Mattia
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To the Editor – I apologise for the delay in responding to the article by your journalist Riccardo Trezzi, which points out an error I made on ‘Piazzapulita’ when I described the rise in consumer prices from 2000 to 2025 as a ‘loss of purchasing power’. The distinction is clear to me: if we had actually lost 63 per cent of the value of our wages, we would effectively be reduced to poverty. On occasion, the need to formulate my next point in advance leads me to make such errors. In the heat of the moment, I believed I had quoted both the inflation figure and the figure on the decline in purchasing power, which I had in fact omitted. From 2019 to 2024, the National Institute of Statistics estimates, in fact, a 10.5 per cent loss in the purchasing power of employees’ wages. The ongoing wars are making this trend even more dramatic. I would like to take this opportunity to make it clear that I am not against the euro. However, I would like to point out that, since its introduction in Italy, growth has slowed progressively, wages have not fully kept pace with inflation, and workers’ conditions have deteriorated overall. I can confirm, however, that Germany alone plans to spend 108 billion euros on rearmament in 2026 – a figure higher than Russia’s military expenditure in the year of its invasion of Ukraine (86.4 billion). Throughout my long professional career, there have always been errors in citing figures, percentages or names. However, whilst I remain committed to correcting them, I do not believe that a journalist’s credibility depends on them. It depends on the consistency of a career which, in my case, with several decades of work and achievements behind me, has never lost the public’s trust. I shall take care to ask Corrado Formigli to allow me to make the necessary correction at a future opportunity. Yours faithfully.
Michele Santoro