«The government has launched yet another buffer decree on fuel excise duties. Another patch that extends the measures already adopted by a month. What will happen at the end of this month? Minister Giorgetti raised the alarm about the accounts: the aid resources have run out. We risk, in his words, “petrol at three euros”. And, obviously, this morning the government, again in Giorgetti’s words, opens up the possibility of derogating from the stability pact. To do what? With what strategy? Continuing to suffer Donald Trump’s crazy policies?” These are the questions posed by the PD group leader in the Senate, Francesco Boccia, after the announcement of the new legislative decree on excise duties passed by the government. «We had asked – continues the dem – for a 360 degree parliamentary debate: on foreign policy and economic choices, in light of the outcome of the European Council. We were refused. But Giorgia Meloni shouldn’t dream of using next week’s information to make a catwalk. We expect a serious discussion on the Def that will have to be launched as soon as possible: it is urgent and necessary to know what this government intends to do, which – concludes Boccia – has no resources or even a strategy to respond to the needs of Italian families and businesses”.
Bonelli: “The government is leading Italy into disarray”
«The Meloni government has no energy strategy and is leading Italy into disarray and economic recession. The extension of the excise duty cut until May 1st, announced by the Council of Ministers, is yet another stopgap intervention that confirms this absence. We are talking about a cost of 500 million euros, covered partly by the VAT increase – therefore from the pockets of Italians – and partly by ETS and CO resources which should be allocated to the energy transition”. This is how Angelo Bonelli, AVS MP and co-spokesperson for Green Europe, comments on the extension of the excise duty cut just decided by the government. “The government – accuses the red-green exponent – has built a dependence on gas, responsible for the high cost of energy, and has blocked renewables, which would reduce costs and make Italy autonomous from an energy point of view”. Furthermore, he adds, “41 billion euros of public resources have been spent in recent years, but energy in Italy remains the most expensive in Europe”. In the meantime, he insists, “the use of coal has been extended until 2038, also with the support of Action: a crazy choice and in the opposite direction to reducing bills”.
“The government should follow the example of Sanchez’s Spain, which drastically lowered energy prices by focusing on renewables. This is the way to truly protect families and businesses”, on the contrary “that of the Italian government is not an energy policy: it establishes – concludes Bonelli – that a political party that defined itself as patriotic has become extraneous to the interests of the country”.
Renzi: “Government incapable”
«Today the government made a decree to lower excise duties. But it was the same government that had increased excise duties on diesel three months ago. They are ridiculous or incompetent, I can’t say which.” Thus the leader of Italia Viva, Matteo Renzi, guest on L’Aria che Tira, on La7, comments on the extension decided by the government of the excise duty cut. And, addressing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, “when you lose a referendum like that – the former Prime Minister cut short – you either govern for real or you resign”.
M5S: “Executive chases events, it’s now ‘game over'”
«Today the Council of Ministers led by Giorgia Meloni produces the fourth, useless, decree in a month and a half. And the very fact that after the Bills Decree, the Fuels Decree, the Tax Decree, this morning an Excise Decree had to be passed hastily, demonstrates the inadequacy of an Executive which for too many years has been chasing events without governing them”. This is the accusation made against the government by the M5s parliamentarians of the budget, finance and production activities commissions of the Chamber and Senate after today’s meeting. The Executive, therefore – summarize the Five Star Movement – “is at the end credits”. In particular, they observe in a note, «putting another 500 million bill, paid in part by the citizens themselves through the increased VAT, to extend an insufficient and useless cut in excise duties until early May, under the illusion of covering trips out of town on May 1st, is nothing short of insulting. As happened with the first fuel bill – they continue – the extension of the excise duty cut of this further decree will also be literally eaten up by the increase in the price of oil, now firmly above 100 dollars a barrel”. The Five Star Movement also considers Minister Giorgetti’s declarations to be “dramatic”, as – they underline – “he admits the need to overcome the constraints of that Stability Pact that he himself, with Giorgia Meloni, signed. A presumptuous and unscrupulous Government committed an original sin by signing that Pact. Today all the main analysts and observers tell us that we are living in a phase of ‘permacrisis and ‘polycrisis, full of commercial and geopolitical fragmentations, with the total overturning of global supply chains. And, mind you, this situation has been going on since at least 2008, i.e. since the subprime mortgage crisis.” «The crises we are experiencing are not today’s events – reason the 5 Star parliamentarians -, but have distant roots. The failure to understand this on the part of the EU and Italy, which have resurrected a European economic framework that was effectively useless, is an enormous fault. It will be difficult to put the pieces back together, but it is possible, but this Government cannot put them back together, having now reached a clear ‘game over'”.
According to the Five Star Movement, “we need to change direction quickly: suspend the Stability Pact, radically rewrite it, introduce Eurobonds, increase the multi-year EU budget, tax banking and energy extra profits, design a precise trajectory of industrial policy, introduce the minimum wage and launch – they conclude – a policy to support incomes which in Italy, on a real level, are in fearful decline”.