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Despite only taking office at the end of October, the government headed by Giorgia Meloni managed to approve the manoeuvre in record time, effectively averting the provisional financial year and achieving an unprecedented result in Italy in terms of timing.
With only EUR 35 billion in the treasury, the manoeuvre focused mainly on aid for families, businesses and workers.
During the end-of-year conference, President Meloni confirmed that she was “very satisfied with the work done with this manoeuvre because it is not limited to an accountant’s job but makes political choices and is presented by a government that in just a month has written and presented a manoeuvre that traces and tells of a political vision” and that “at the basis of the manoeuvre that totals 35 billion euro there are two major priorities: growth, that is, making the productive fabric safe” and, on the other hand, “social justice, that is, attention to families and lower incomes”.
“A manoeuvre therefore based on two major priorities: growth, i.e. securing the productive fabric” and, on the other hand, “social justice, i.e. attention to families and lower incomes,” the PM added.
And reading the main points confirms what has been said and how some of the key points of the centre-right’s programme are present in the manoeuvre, from the reshaping of the Citizenship Income, to tax relief against the high energy price for businesses, from the flat tax on incremental incomes to cutting the tax wedge, from new resources for schools and education to adjustments on pensions, from labour policies to those on relief for new hires, passing through support for the tourism and agri-food sectors and policies to support families and the birth rate.
In short, a manoeuvre that, despite the scarce time, limited resources, and the energy emergency that alone absorbed 21 of the 35 billion available, has managed to touch on the main points, providing support for the critical issues of the moment while laying the foundations for future policies. Moreover, it is worth pointing out, some points were taken out of the finance bill to be discussed separately in greater depth, such as the discount on fuel excise duties.
During the conference, the Prime Minister was also keen to recall how, despite the short time available, the manoeuvre had been approved a day earlier than in the last two years – in 2020 and 2021, in fact, the budget law had been approved on 30 December – and he also emphasised the results achieved in relation to the PNRR, with the attainment of the 30 objectives needed to reach the ‘quota 55’ envisaged in the programme. Targets of which, it was pointed out, only 25 had been achieved at the time of the inauguration.
Returning to the manoeuvre, it is positive that no new deficit resources were used to implement it, which reaffirms that it is certainly a realistic and pragmatic manoeuvre, built on the emergency phase deriving from the last remnants of the pandemic and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, which however manifests a clear desire to give life to the new Italian course heralded by the centre-right and by Meloni in primis when she took office.
Femo