'M5S won, give us basic income' say Puglia residents (2)

(ANSA) - Bari, March 8 - Several residents of Puglia on Wednesday and Thursday went to job centres and union advice offices and demanded the basic income that is a central plank in the platform of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), which came first in Sunday's general election.
    At the Porta Futura job centre in Bari, around 50 people, mainly young persons, asked for the forms to fill out to get the basic income of 780 euros a month.
    The M5S is far from having a majority to form a government and leader Luigi Di Maio has appealed to other parties to get behind its government programme, so far without success.
    Di Maio said on Italian TV earlier this week that the basic income, if the M5S were to come to power, would probably have to be delayed for at least two years while Italy's job centres are revamped.
    The basic income would be somewhat similar to job seekers' allowance in some cases, and anyone who turned down three straight jobs would lose it, M5S bigwig Alessandro Di Battista said before the election.
    In other cases, it would be given to people to lift them out of poverty, the M5S says. photo: Di Maio