MNI INTERVIEW: Italy New Left Group Leader To Support Jobless

--Social Inclusion Policies Will Be Key To Boosting Growth

--Ruling Democrats "Against" Change, No Chances To Ally

--Jobs, Investments To Top Electoral Agenda

By Silvia Marchetti

     ROME (MNI) - Reforming welfare policy and boosting support to low earners

will be a main priority for the new Italian leftist party, founder Roberto

Speranza told Market News in an exclusive interview.

     Speranza said the new Free and Equal movement would act to undo many of the

reforms put in place by the centre-left Democrats.

     The 38-year-old party leader, who aims to unite left-leaning voters

critical of the mainstream Democrat party, said he stood as a beacon of hope to

roughly 10 million Italians looking for a 'new left', able to protect jobs and

salaries.

     "Globalization has created enormous wealth but it has concentrated it in

the hands of a few privileged. Roughly 20% of Italians have 69% of the country's

wealth, while 10 million people can't afford to cure themselves if sick and 93%

of job contracts signed in 2017 are temporary," he said.

     Policies put in place by the Democrat party -- which Speranza abandoned

earlier this year after open disagreements with the leadership of former premier

Matteo Renzi -- "should have supported the weakest parts of the population but

have ended up favouring globalisation winners. This is why we launched Free and

Equal," he said.

     Speranza's new group already comprises four parties that place themselves

to the left of the Democrats and "fight for workers' rights and dignity". Last

week he succeeded in bringing on board other minor parties that Renzi had been

courting as potential allies in a future government.

     Along with the Democrat old guard swept away by Renzi when he rose to power

in 2014, Free and Equal unites mayors, trade unionists, catholic groups and

environmentalists who want to build an alternative left, explained Speranza.

     The party could win around 8-10 percent of votes at next year's general

elections, according to early surveys.

     Its electoral program spans from relaunching public investments and

pro-growth measures, to abolishing Renzi's Jobs Act labour reform, reintroducing

article 18 of the workers' national contract that forbids a small company from

firing an employee without "just cause".

     "It's a matter of protecting workers' dignity and giving certainties to

Italian families," argued Speranza. "We need new social policies that stand as a

break from the past, a discontinuity from everything Renzi-branded".

     The ultimate goal is to bring centre-left swing voters into the fold and

move Free and Equal into the political mainstream.

     "We will challenge the Democrats in all fields because we want to bring

back to the ballot boxes, and make vote again, all those who have been

disappointed by the Jobs Act, the tax amnesties,"  argued the anti-Renzi leader,

who also looks to the votes of the migrant population as well.

     Speranza calls for a rapid approval of a bill working through parliament

that grants Italian citizenship to all second generation immigrants, a total of

roughly 5 million people.

     "We will respect our commitment to vote on this law ... instead of fooling

those millions of New Italians who have been waiting for this for years," he

said.

     Speranza said his political creation is part of a wider European and global

project that "looked to a new-found left, following on the steps of left-wing

French politician Jean-Luc Antoine Pierre Melenchon, British Labour party leader

Jeremy Corbyn and the US Senator Bernie Sanders".

     Unity across the Italian centre-left is a faraway dream for Speranza, who

ruled out any possible future "peace" with the Democrats. 

     "Without change unity is mere electoral alchemy. And the Democrats have

chosen not to change," he said.

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: M$E$$$,M$I$$$,M$X$$$,MC$$$$,MI$$$$,MX$$$$,MGX$$$]