Cancellation of the contract with the National Health System, a request to the government for one billion euros in arrears and tomorrow pharmacies closed due to strike: the pharmacists confirm everything and prepare for the clash with the minister Pierluigi Bersani. Yesterday's meeting between the heads of the Ministry of Economic Development and those of Federfarma (the Association of Private Pharmacy Owners) on the attempt to reach an agreement in view of the approval of the provision on liberalisations, could not have ended worse than this. "A shameful meeting to pretend to discuss an early Christmas present to hypermarkets," accuses the secretary of Federfarma, Franco Caprino. "The positions remain divergent because we are asking for greater competition to lower prices", replies the undersecretary Paolo Girretta, representing the absent minister. The experience with taxi drivers seems to have profoundly marked the strategy of dialogue between the minister and professionals, and so Bersani has seen fit not to dedicate too much time to consultation. An attitude that has made the pharmacists go into a rage: "If Bersani has to say no, at least do it in person," claims the national federation of orders (FOFI). In fact, in just three quarters of an hour granted by the ministry, Federfarma was rejected without appeal the proposal to "allow citizens to be able to buy self-medication medicines in all commercial outlets". The Association asks that they be sold everywhere: from service stations to small supermarkets, while the ministry insists on the presence of a pharmacist. "An impossible solution - explains Caprino - because only a hypermarket can afford to hire four or five graduates to cover the shifts: it is clear that we are talking about a liberalization tailored to large retailers". Meanwhile Autogrill Spa is evaluating the conditions for the sale of over-the-counter medicines. In a note, the ministry specifies that in the last few weeks it has implemented some requests from federfarma: 1) a company can own a maximum of four pharmacies in the same province; 2) the heir of a pharmacy owner has two years to transfer the property if he does not have professional qualifications. Too little for the pharmacists who tomorrow, in addition to lowering the shutters (93 per cent of the strike last July 19), will gather in Piazza Barberini in Rome and then convene to the Extraordinary Assembly at the Jolly Hotel. Here the next forms of fighting will be discussed. "At the moment - Caprino confirms to the newspaper - our lawyers are finishing preparing the seven thousand injunctions to collect the one billion euros that the government owes Federfarma for the purchase of medicines not yet paid". And on tomorrow's abstention, the Strike Guarantee Commission judged the protest for failure to comply with the notice to be irregular, while Codacons threatened federfarma to "formally ask" for a fine of one million euros plus another 10,000 for each pharmacy that joins the strike. "We will pay the fine - replied the Association of Pharmacists - but the protest will not stop with the exception of those on duty". On the other front of the war of professionals against Bersani, the lawyers have sent a letter to the seven life senators asking them not to vote for confidence on liberalisation. "We consider it serious - writes Michelina Grillo, president of the unitary body of the Italian lawyers (Oua) - that we intervene with emergency decrees and with votes of confidence in such delicate matters: instead of opening to confrontation, we legislate with an emergency and demagogic logic".
