The last day of the year is the moment to take stock and to make new resolutions.
The year 2007 has been a year of hi-lights and lo-lights for the Government. The hi-lights are that it has ensured stability in the country and it has stopped the hemorrhaging of the economy that was started by the previous government. Without money we can go nowhere and the priority has been to avoid the bankruptcy of the State.
However, a Nation cannot just be based on the economy. It is not a company. And this is where we see the negative points especially in relation to promises that have been made to the electorate and not carried out. I will list those that I would like to see being tackled by the Government with the utmost energy in 2008. The deaths at work are the top priority, deaths at work are not a surprise. The ThyssenKrupp company with its unending list of deaths saw the most recent one just today which is the umpteenth episode. The penalties must be dramatically increased and the number of inspectors increased. Anyone who causes the death of a worker because of lack of care must end up in prison with no discounts and no pardons.
For the very survival of democracy, the news industry cannot be controlled by political parties. Those who are doing politics must not have any control over the media, or like Berlusconi be actually the owner. In the year 2008, I hope (and I will do everything possible to make this true) that the reform of the radio and the TV and the rules concerning the conflict of interests are finally sorted out and brought to a conclusion.
Electoral reform must be tackled “from the viewpoint of the citizens” who must be in a position to choose their own candidates and to no longer have convicted felons representing them in Parliament. Furthermore, the process of defining the new law must be transparent. It’s not a question of power games for the seats, but of defining the rules for democratic elections.
Enterprise is another emergency. Today we are seeing the continual shifting of production to other countries. But this means eliminating jobs in Italy. It’s pure arithmetic. We need to give incentives to the entrepreneurs to invest and to stay in Italy by slimming down the paperwork and reducing the tax burden. It is a paradox that the foreign companies don’t come here and ours go abroad. This process cannot go on for a long time without causing unemployment and the withering of the industrial fabric of the country.
The final point, perhaps the most important one is to give back to the citizens the trust in the Justice system. The episodes with Forleo and De Magistris are just the tip of the iceberg of a justice system in great difficulty and ever more subject to the political system. The machinery of justice is creaking because that is what the parties wanted after “Clean Hands”. The result is that in Italy, almost no one serves out a complete prison sentence, whether they have committed false accounting, corruption or simple theft.
Safety at work, news, electoral law, the relaunch of enterprise, Justice. These are 5 topics to be tackled and resolved. This is my wish for the year 2008.