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The imperative is to skim off the parties’ additional requests. The Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti want to lock down the budget law and at the summit with the majority leaders they apply the brakes on the appetites of the allies. The games are still open, discussions with Brussels continue, but one thing is certain: with the narrow budgetary margins available, resources must be concentrated on measures with “tangible” effects for citizens, but also to leave their mark in view of the elections.
The majority meeting on the maneuver lasts about two hours. And it engages the allies at the end of a day dominated by the public order emergency and the head-to-head between the League and Forza Italia to agree on the strengthening of Safe Roads in Milan. At the table, attended by deputy prime ministers Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvini (connected from Milan) and the leader of Noi Moderati Maurizio Lupi, we take stock of the discussions with Brussels on energy flexibility and the impact of the bill decree which has just obtained the EU’s green light.
The crux of the banks’ contribution
The confrontation between the allies immediately becomes uphill on the thorny issue of the banks’ contribution. The Budget Plan has already established that there are 5 billion to be collected from the financial sector and there is no escape from there. But the contribution of the banks is something that must be negotiated well, the prime minister makes clear. In fact, there is a shared awareness that a three-year agreement was signed last year and the fact of coming back now with a new request makes some people more hesitant.
At the moment there are three hypotheses on the table to avoid a taxation that the League would like, but which others would be against. It is a question of establishing what must be binding, the obligatory contribution, and what can enter into the logic of optionality. What is certain is that today’s summit will have to come out with a political agreement on the general approach of how to intervene on the banks and how to use these resources. Having overcome this issue, there is already a clear awareness that the negotiation with the ABI will be delicate.
The demands of the parties
At the table, mediation is also attempted on the measures. The watchword of Giorgetti and the Accounting Department is to reduce as much as possible the parties’ requests for modifications to the basic text. Prime Minister Meloni is personally committed to locking down the original text of the maneuver as much as possible. The parties have been flaunting long lists of proposals for weeks. The League is aiming for a flat tax of up to 100 thousand euros, a pension at 64 and a flat tax for young people. Forza Italia is not giving up on the Irpef cut for the middle class, but is also asking for the extension of the stop on car tax, the no tax area for young people and the recovery of medical expenses in the current year. In the Noi Moderati list we range from flat rate tax for long-term rentals to zero taxes for newly hired under 30s. Fratelli d’Italia aims to provide concrete answers to families and businesses.
Safety and times: towards the CDM of the 28th
The summit will have to succeed in the difficult challenge of giving direction. The clashes and unrest of the last few days could also push the government to intervene in maneuvers, through defense flexibility, to guarantee more resources to the police. Then there is the issue of “dedicated social security” for the security sector: a system to compensate for the pension penalties of a category that retires early and thus accrues fewer contributions, on which the PA minister Paolo Zangrillo gave the first signal, who has recently started, as promised, a round table on social security issues. According to current estimates, around half a million would be needed to make the system operational in 10 years.
In this difficult context, the budget law is preparing to exceed the non-peremptory deadline of 20 October for sending to the Chambers. At the moment it seems unlikely that the launch will come from the Council of Ministers scheduled for Friday the 23rd. Instead, it seems more likely that the date to be circled in red is the 28th.