by Yannick Vanderborght | Feb 6, 2013 | News
General elections will be held in Italy on 24-25 February 2013. After the presentation of Mario Monti’s “Agenda for Italy”, Beppe Grillo, the colourful leader of Movimento 5 stelle (5 Stars Movement) proposed a counter-agenda in 16 points, in which the second point is a “Guarantee Citizens’ Income”. After the news of suicides provoked by the critical economic situation, Grillo asserted on his blog that “No one should be left behind” and that every one needs to be assured of some sort of basic guaranteed income as soon as possible. In a public speech he said that in these times of economic crisis, the funding for it would be found by taking money from the so called “gold pensions”, i.e. taxing retirement benefits over four thousand euros. However, his (somewhat vague) proposal remains closer to a minimum income conditional upon work availability than to a true basic income.
Movimento 5 stelle is not the only party that put some form of citizens’ income on its agenda. Elettra Deiana, member of the national presidential committee of Sel (Sinistra Ecologia Libertà / Left Ecology and Freedom) has called for a welfare reform to ensure every adult with no means and who is looking for work an income that can cover his/her basic needs.
If the policy proposed by the two parties is not really an unconditional basic income, it’s important to stress that for the first time in Italy the problem of non-contributory income support (i.e. not linked with previous contribution or prior work activity) has featured in a campaign for the national Parliament.
Links
Beppe Grillo on guarantee citizen income:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04ECfodHwuo
https://www.beppegrillo.it/2012/05/omicidi_sociali.html
Elettra Deiana (Sel) on basic income:
https://www.sinistraecologialiberta.it/articoli/reddito-lavoro-esistenza-il-quid-della-cittadinanza/
by Sandro Gobetti | Dec 23, 2012 | News
BIN Italia last book, entitled Reddito minimo garantito, un progetto necessario e possibile [Guaranteed Minimum Income, a feasible and necessary project] (published by Edizioni Gruppo Abile), has been presented in Turin at the bookshop “Torre di Babele” on November 29th. Luca Santini, President of BIN Italia, Sandro Gobetti, co-ordinator of BIN Italia (both co-authors of the book), and Marco Revelli (historian and sociologist) attended the book presentation.
by Sandro Gobetti | Dec 21, 2012 | News
BIN Italia continues its book tour across Italy. On November 28th the book entitled Reddito minimo garantito, un progetto necessario e possibile [Guaranteed Minimum Income, a feasible and necessary project] published by Edizioni Gruppo Abele has been presented in Milan. Andrea Fumagalli (BIN Italia) and Corrado Del Bò (Researcher in Philosophy of Law at the State University of Milan) took part in the event.
https://www.bin-italia.org/
by Sandro Gobetti | Dec 19, 2012 | News
BIN Italia last book, Reddito minimo garantito, un progetto necessario e possibile [Guaranteed Minimum Income, a feasible and necessary project] published by Edizioni Gruppo Abele has been presented in the city of Prato on November 24th. Luca Santini, President of BIN Italia, and Sandro Gobetti, co-ordinator of BIN Italia took part in the presentation. The book presentation has been followed by a debate moderated by Lanfranco Nosi who is a member of the Committee for Guaranteed Income in Prato. The event has been organised also to support the campaign in favour of a popular initiative bill on guaranteed minimum income in Italy. Many signatures in favour of this petition have been collected during the event.
https://www.bin-italia.org/
by Sandro Gobetti | Dec 17, 2012 | News
A public debate entitled ‘Basic Income, Employment and Protection of Fundamental Rights in the European policies post Lisbon Treaty” has been held in Teramo at the Multipurpose Hall of the Province of Teramo on November 19th. The event has been attended by Giorgio Anselmi, who is the national secretary of the European Federalist Movement, Giuseppe Bronzini who is a judge of the Supreme Court and author of the book Reddito di Cittadinanza [Citizens’ Income], Gianni Chiodi who is the Governor of the Abruzzo region, Valter Catarra who is the President of the Province of Teramo, and Michele Picciano who is the President of AICCRE that is the Italian section of CEMR (Council of European Municipalities and Regions of Europe).
Info about the event is online at:
www.aiccre.it
www.provincia.teramo.it
https://www.bin-italia.org/
