The M5E picks up in southern Italy with its defense of the most vulnerable

Gianni Brandi is 46 years old and has been sleeping on the streets of Naples for two years.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
25 September 2022 Sunday 17:49
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The M5E picks up in southern Italy with its defense of the most vulnerable

Gianni Brandi is 46 years old and has been sleeping on the streets of Naples for two years. The pandemic hit, and he lost his job as a waiter. He also lost his house. All their income depends on one thing: the citizen's income, a subsidy that around 1.6 million people receive in Italy, with an average of 551 euros per month per head, the star proposal of the 5 Star Movement (M5E) that now the right wants to reform. Brandi shows him his yellow prepaid card: he has had 500 euros for two and a half years. They don't come for rent but they do come to eat or sleep in a pension from time to time.

“These 500 euros make the difference between surviving or having to take another path. On the street, you see everything”, he says. She shrugs when asked about her vote. And he says: "I'm politically ignorant, but if it wasn't for Giuseppe Conte I don't know what would have become of me."

The M5E seemed doomed to extinction in July. In the last four years, since he won the 2018 elections and went from an anti-system experiment to a power party, he has been dragging serious identity problems, leaving a hundred parliamentarians behind, losing in the polls and suffering serious splits. . In particular, the abandonment of Luigi Di Maio, who had led the anti-caste party to victory with populist and eurosceptic messages, and became the most pro-European Foreign Minister under the umbrella of Mario Draghi. At that time, former Prime Minister Conte, current leader of the M5E, gave the impression of being lost, without control over his deputies or credibility with his constituents.

But surprisingly everything has changed. Conte is concentrating his campaign on becoming the defender of the poor. With two great proposals, to defend the citizen's income and a minimum wage for everyone. "He has done an intelligent marketing operation by taking care of the peripheries, which are no longer recognized in the Democratic Party (PD)", says Andrea Morniroli, administrator of the Dedalus cooperative, which helps the most vulnerable. “In a country with almost six million people in absolute poverty, there cannot be a tool like income”, he stresses. And it has worked for Conte. There are polls that say that he will grow to 16% of the vote. He convinces, above all, in the southern part of Italy. 70% of families receiving this benefit live south of Rome.

“The father of the rent!”, they acclaimed him in the streets of Palermo (Sicily). There, Conte came to challenge Matteo Renzi, critical of citizen income, to "come without an escort" to talk to those who live on the subsidy. In Naples, the Italian city that benefits the most – it is perceived by more people than in all of Lombardy – he was hailed as a star. Naples is the capital of the Campania region, where there are almost 340,000 beneficiaries representing 6.8% of the electorate, according to data from Corriere della Sera. And it is precisely in this region where a large part of the constituencies in dispute in southern Italy are concentrated. In other words, citizen income could be a key variable in the result for next Sunday.

“Before the pandemic, in Naples there was already a situation of economic difficulty, greater extreme poverty and lack of work. If it ends, I don't know what will happen, maybe there will be a revolt”, predicts Benedetta Ferone, who works with the homeless in the Community of Sant'Egidio. She is among those who think that the system should be improved with accompanying policies to help find work. The measure is not so much a minimum income but something more similar to an unemployment subsidy, but it has been criticized for its lack of effectiveness or for fraudsters – also gangsters – who have taken advantage of it. Some say that it pushes people not to work. "I kill myself paying taxes and there are people who prefer to collect on the sofa," protests Danilo, a police officer disillusioned with the M5E. For others, he has been a lifesaver.

Naples has another peculiarity. It is one of those Italian cities where poverty is not concentrated only in the outskirts, but also in many central neighborhoods. Like in Sanità, in the Quartieri Spagnoli or in Forcella, where Gennaro, leaning on his motorcycle, spends the afternoon chatting outside a friend's house.

“Conte is due to the people, not to the great powers. He could be Goliath, but he has decided to be David”, he assures. He lives with the citizen's income that his wife receives. From time to time he does some work in a black bar, but he says that he doesn't pay for it. “They paid me 200 euros a week. I would do it for 9 euros an hour, ”he promises. They manage to make ends meet with the help of a family member. “It is sad to have to go to eat at the house of the in-laws, at 38 years old.”