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Protesters march against Italian PM Matteo Renzi labour reforms in Rome

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Matteo Renzi
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Demonstrators from across Italy filled the streets of Rome on Saturday to protest against labour market reforms which the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has made a cornerstone of its policy.

Red flags bearing the logo of Italy's largest union, the CGIL, waved over town squares as thousands of people rallied behind the group's call for job creation and job security.

Renzi won backing from his party late in September for plans to change employee protection rules that critics say deter companies from hiring new staff, contributing to chronic economic weakness.

"If Renzi and his government have their antennas up, as they usually do, they will receive a very strong signal today which is that the majority of the people who work and who want to work in this country do not agree with their politics," Fiom union general secretary Maurizio Landini told Reuters TV.

"If he really wants to change this country he needs to do it with these people, not against us," Landini said.

The unusual standoff between labour unions and a coalition led by a left-wing party is also fuelled by wider discontent about the austerity policies, including heavy public spending cuts, adopted by governments to meet European Union budget rules.

Italian newspapers said 150,000 participants were expected in Rome, including one boat and two chartered aeroplanes full of people from the island of Sardinia.

European policymakers have applauded Renzi's proposals, which also aim to mend a labour market divided between young workers with few employments rights and older employees whose jobs are rigidly protected.

Unions and left-wing members of Renzi's Democratic Party say the proposals undermine workers' rights and do nothing to address the underlying causes of stagnation in an economy whose output has contracted by some 9 percent since the start of the financial crisis in 2007.

Italy's overall employment rate is one of the lowest in the euro zone, at 55.7 percent in August, and joblessness among young people is running at a record-high 44.2 percent.

As Rome reverberated with stamping feet and whistles, jobs and investment were on the agenda for a meeting the 39-year-old premier hosted of like-minded party members in the central Italian town of Florence, where he used to be mayor.

Hedge fund founder and long-time Renzi ally Davide Serra said at the meeting that people had the right to go on strike but warned of possible damage to the economy.

"We should try to understand that there is a cost. Someone who was going to come and invest here tomorrow will not come," Serra told reporters.

The CGIL has likened Renzi to Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister who fought to weaken trade unions during the 1980s.



 

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