In the pre-electoral debate of this administrative round that sees seven regions to the vote (Marche, Tuscany, Campania, Puglia, Calabria, Veneto and Valle d’Aosta) we are witnessing a surprising political exhumation. Let’s talk about the citizenship income, the grillino tool par excellence: introduced by the first Conte government in 2019 and (partially) eliminated by the Meloni government in early 2024, over time it submitted 4.7 million people with about 36 billion euros, an expenditure of 7/8 billion per year, a financial half.

To bring the citizenship income out of the way is the “wide field” that embraces the center -left with a grill traction. Although it must be said that even the secretary Dem Elly Schlein had long attacked the Meloni government on the elimination of the support, explaining that “we do not joke about the future of the poor people” and making the flag measure of the riotous ally (same thing had happened with the minimum wage, always supported by the M5S, first opposed by the PD and CGIL and then became one of the strengths of the Schlein program).

The income of regional citizenship

In particular, the income of regional citizenship has risen to the limelight in Calabria, where the wide field relies on the former INPS president and current MEP 5Stelle Pasquale Tridico, and in Tuscany where Schlein has imposed the governor Eugenio Giani with the grillini – the famous pact of the Taverna, intended as the photo between Giani and Paola Taverna, Deputy of Conte) – in which ” of regional citizenship “.

Tridico intends to take the money from the well of San Patrizio of European funds, while in the Tuscan case the economic outlines of the provision are still in a more than smoky state. It must be said that other regions have also promoted forms of assistance similar to citizenship income in recent years. Let’s talk about the Puglia of Michele Emiliano, who financed the “Dignity income” (500 euros per month for those who have an annual income of less than 9,360 euros) and the Sardinia of the grill Alessandra Todde with the European funds until 2027, who has refinted the “regional inclusion income” with 30 million always European funds.

With the inclusion allowance 850 thousand the poorest families

On the income of citizenship in recent years, it has been said and written very much, most of the time not well, beyond those who had proposed it and the fringes of the left who then touched the 5Stelle. Those who opposed him have often focused their finger on the abuses and on the many cases of illegal donations, of money finished to those who had no right or who had set up para-giuridic devices to be assigned the amount (on average 550/600 euros each).

However, it was an incorrect target. The problem of citizenship income was not in fact when it was given with incorrect methods, but when it was given with correct modalities. The measure had in fact been presented as part of a larger placement campaign in the world of work for those who had been excluded and tried to return. But the active policies for the employment to which the income was intrinsically linked have never started seriously (and they could not leave, given the haste with which they were started …) and therefore the measure ended up proving only a void to lose, only support for poverty (in the best of cases), an incentive not to look for it even that work (almost all) or, what is worse, a pushed towards black work.

Citizenship income: in three years only 484 new hires with incentives

A disaster. The public funds essentially proved to be a way to stimulate the desire to do, everyone’s ability to get involved or the sense of duty and the love of keeping themselves, but encouraged the propensity of many to wait for someone else (the state) solve your problems. In fact, it is clear that the public must take charge of some limit situations, those of extreme poverty in which for one reason or another there are people who are unable to maintain themselves (such as ADI, an inclusion check introduced by the Meloni government, or other similar tools in force in the past), but it is equally evident that one cannot encourage those who want to spend the day on the sofa. It is the work that ennobles the man, to use an image that in the past has agreed Christians and left -wing people (from San Benedetto to Marx), and not the passive awaited of an alms.

What’s true behind the return of citizenship income