Amid criticism of the road tax, the PD overlooks Bersani’s excise duties

 “Meloni has decided to fund the election campaign with Italians’ money,” commented Antonio Misiani, senator and economic spokesperson for the PD, regarding the government’s decree, which has changed the measure to tackle high fuel prices: the discount on diesel falls to 12.2 cents until 25 September and drops to 6.1 cents until 5 October (after which only variable excise duties will remain), whilst €2.3 billion will be used to cover the abolition of road tax for cars with an engine power of up to 80 kW. Misiani’s criticism is justified: despite promises to make the measure permanent, the government is cutting the tax for just one year and postponing a decision on the long-term solution.

Yet when it comes to this sort of transgression, no one is in a position to cast the first stone. It was the PD itself, with Pier Luigi Bersani as Minister for Economic Development in the then outgoing Prodi government, which in March 2008 funded the first-ever temporary cut in excise duties using 162 million in VAT windfall revenue: a reduction of around 2 centesimi from 20 March to 30 April. This was the month before the elections that brought Silvio Berlusconi back to Palazzo Chigi. That 162 million was also the Italian people’s money, and that excise duty cut, too, had a “clear electoral flavour”, according to the same yardstick Misiani is now applying to the road tax exemption.

These measures, however, do not seem to bode well: in March 2026, following the Hormuz crisis, the government cut excise duties just a few days before the referendum on the justice system, and we know how that turned out. Could it be that Meloni has now switched tactics out of superstition?