Schlein attacks Meloni on healthcare: “We are the Republic of waiting lists”

The heart of politics should be Montecitorio: premier time part two and this time without the delay, due to the death of Pope Francis , which had partially weakened, making them a bit unpunctual, the questions in the Senate. Instead, certainly not for the first time, propaganda prevails over everything, there are cameras, live TV, the imperative is to choose the most favorable terrain to make a good impression and above all to make the questioned person, Giorgia Meloni, who answers one question per parliamentary group, do a terrible one.

It happens that the word Ukraine is not even uttered by mistake and Europe is only peripherally called into question. On the eve of the Istanbul meeting , however it ends, the lack of references to that affair is a little surreal. Riccardo Magi is there to warm up the frost of the lost opportunity. His group, +Europa , was denied the question in favor of that of the representative of the Aosta Valley. He bursts in dressed as a ghost with a sign asking to break the state silence on the referendums and President Fontana has him dragged away by the ushers. If Ukraine is not talked about, Gaza emerges thanks to the question of Avs, by the mouth of the Green leader Bonelli. He asks what the Prime Minister thinks of the massacre and if she intends to recall the Italian ambassador. For once the answer is clear. Giorgia defines Netanyahu 's bombs as "unjustifiable" , half-heartedly, but otherwise fully supports the Israeli prime minister's vision: Israel has been attacked, it is Hamas that must free the hostages and surrender by laying down its weapons. So no, honorable, no intention of recalling ambassadors of any kind.

Conte, who in reality had used time and question to ask why Meloni wants to waste billions to the advantage of Germany with the rearmament plan instead of using them for the needs of Italians who are at the end of their tether, also relaunches on Gaza, asking everyone to stand up in solidarity with the bombed population. Only the 5S, Avs and the PD stand up and the coup de théâtre fails. The now usual exchange of insults takes place between the former prime minister and the current tenant of Palazzo Chigi, in particular on the money invested by Conte in defense when he was prime minister. Meloni mentions the conspicuous expenses of governments, one by one, and the duel ends like this. Meloni instead ends up on the canvas with Elly Schlein . The question from the Democratic secretary is about the collapse of healthcare . Giorgia sings the usual fake refrain, that is, the well-known mantra about her government having invested in healthcare more than any other, and lists the interventions credited to her government. But there is not and there cannot be any story: heated up as perhaps never before, the Democratic Party secretary thunders: "Treatment has become a luxury, we are the Republic of waiting lists!". Giorgia Meloni cashes in and takes home, hit by a powerful hook. As long as the waiting list times remain these actual - that is, biblical - even for the imaginative prime minister there is no way to get out of it with her head held high.

But the clashes, the exchanges of insults, the dialectical ideas take place in a very delicate international context. From that point of view, yesterday, the capital of Italian politics was in Coimbra, Portugal. At the Cotec summit , Mattarella and Draghi duet in perfect harmony. Draghi lashes out at Europe. "Trump's duties are the breaking point of a crisis that has been maturing for some time" and even if the war passes at a lower intensity the situation will not return to normal. Europe, he claims, has stopped counting on its own internal demand to grow, it has put itself in the hands of American consumers. The agreement with the US is now and for now essential but in the long term it must go it alone again. He then lists his recipe for a good half hour, which is complex and articulated and probably effective from a technical point of view. But the obstacle is not technical. It is political.

President Mattarella instead talks about that: " Standing still is no longer an option". The head of state cites the reports of Draghi himself and Letta on competitiveness and the internal market, he indicates them as a strategic direction but underlines that " competitiveness and security are intimately connected" . Security and the end of the strategic dependence that afflicts the Old Continent mean for Mattarella Common European Defense. That is the terrain on which the game of European integration is played today, therefore also the chances of recovering competitiveness or losing it forever. It is not an economic dissertation. It is a timely and precise political message addressed to Giorgia Meloni. Because today, for the president, the real great responsibility of the government is not speeding up enough on integration by withdrawing from the common defense project that Germany and France are working on. The issues discussed yesterday in Montecitorio are all very relevant. But the decisive game for Italy, Europe and the West is being played at this moment on the terrain indicated far from the Chamber by Mattarella and Draghi.

FROM

David Romoli