469. Italian Referendum: MPs CUT…CUT…CUT! YES OR NO?
I Posted this blog ten years ago and there’s not much point in researching it again because since then the numbers of parliamentary and their wages for various countries in the world have not changed since then.
What in Italy has changed, however, is that in 2010 it was
the right wing Alessandra Mussolini who put forward the motion of reform, now
it is the left wing, or to be precise, the Five Star Movement. But like I said, nothing else much has changed at all.
Alessandra Mussolini
Photo: Courtesy Wikipedia
Not often do you find a Member of Parliament who makes statements against his own status quo and in favour of the citizens of that nation. However with her condemnation against the privileges which parliamentarians enjoy, Alessandra Mussolini, (Benito’s granddaughter and Sofia Loren’s niece), has done precisely this and for this I acclaim a well deserved, Bravo Alessandra!
When ex Italian Premier Prodi, in the era of his reign made Italians pay a kind of super-tax to placate the national debt, we paid out, obviously not with much enthusiasm, yet nothing special was asked from the parliamentarians of the time, just us tax-paying citizens were made to pay that, I don’t quite remember the amount, but it wasn’t an insignificant sum at all.
What Alessandra Mussolini condemns is the privileged state of parliamentarians- let’s see exactly what she means.
Country USA Italy Germany Spain U.K. | MPs dep 535 630 548 350 737 | MPs Sen 100 315 69 259 646 | Population 300 million + 58 million + 80 million + 46 million + 61 million + | Salary 165,000 $ 126,000 Euro 82,000 Euro 39,000 Euro 56,000 £ UK |
In effect an Italian Member of Parliament is on the same level as one from the USA, except that in Italy we have 58 and not 300 million inhabitants and the cost of living cannot in any way be compared to that of Italy since that in the USA is much higher. Even so the US have 310 less parliamentarians than Italy.
The only country that has more parliamentarians is the United Kingdom, but they have an economic system that has certain resources that Italy does not possess and therefore can afford to pay for this extravagance also because their MPs earn less than half the amount those in Italy do.
Then we must bear in mind that there are other benefits that only Italian MPs enjoy- namely, body guards, car and chauffer, free air and train transport, expenses refunds, free medics, subsidized meals and housing and if one forfeits these rights they are given a “supplementary” benefit equal to what they have given up.
Fair enough, even if we halve parliamentarians costs we will only manage to save 4 of the 24 thousand milliard needed to keep Italy on her feet. But who says it is only the cost of parliamentarians that need to be cut? What about the high costing managers and pensions that go from 5 to 10 thousand Euros? No, don’t tell me that a person, whoever that may be can demand the state to hand over that kind of pension money with the pretext that it is money they themselves have contributed to the state as workers. Nothing is further from the truth- no contributions are ever that amount. Indeed, those pensions are paid by the Italian people themselves right now. And the Italian people are fed up of this nonsense. This is the kind of exploitation that sent Greece tumbling down on her backside.
And then... and then we have to consider that Parliamentarians are free from Friday to Mondays, as they have to go back home, so they say, and even so they expect to earn the full 10 thousand + Euros a month. Even if the Presidents of both Houses Fini and Schifani complain that the Houses are empty and that the parliamentarians are required to vote only twice or three times a week. I can well believe why the legislation is so slow in Italy, and that not just the judicial system but also Parliament has glacial times. One may well ask, why are the Houses always empty? They say it is because they are all in committee meetings to formulate laws... they say... But why don’t they eliminate some of those parliamentarians from these committee meetings so as to be free of those who do nothing else but hold back the smooth course of implementing laws... the first of these having absolute priority is, taking away the sweets... or rather the huge fat cake, from parliamentarians.
And then the Minister Calderoli proposes a cut of 5% from the 10 thousand plus Euro monthly salary of these so nice Members of Parliament!!! Do me a favour...
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