Schlein: ‘On the no to European rearmament we will insist’

Rome, 7 March (LaPresse) – ‘Certainly we Italians are the most critical and we believe that the path proposed by von der Leyen is not the one the EU needs: we want a common defence, not the rearmament of the 27 countries’. So said PD secretary Elly Schlein to the Manifesto. ‘That plan does not envisage common investments and proposes flexibility to incentivise national spending. But if you don't condition investments to common projects there is no progress. With the socialists we had positive feedback on the no to the diversion of cohesion funds, which serve to reduce social and territorial inequalities, to military spending. I used the argument that not reducing social spending has always been the position of the PES,' he adds, explaining: ’We will continue to insist, hoping to find other convergences with the socialists: our proposal is that of a Next Generation of 800 billion a year on social, industrial, environmental and digital chapters and also on common defence. The priorities,' he concludes, ’must be the social ones indicated at the time of Covid, we need a European plan that anticipates the impact of Trump's duties. And the same courage as then'.