Pensions, out-of-control public finances and political risk. This is how France, grappling with a fiscal crisis, risks infecting the Eurozone

Just as housing has come back into fashion, it is important to avoid any misunderstanding. In the European debate, there is increasing talk of ‘affordable housing’, a broad term which, when translated into Italian, risks lumping together profoundly different realities. Public housing, the ERP managed by the Aziende Casa, is not the same thing as social housing 

The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia are raising barriers against skilled foreign workers, but studies on the US case show the opposite effect: fewer visas do not create more jobs for local workers; instead, they drive research and investment abroad and stifle innovation

The sociologist and director of the Esade Centre for Economic Policy: “We need measures that, in the long term, will enable new homes to be built and, in the short term, will encourage existing properties to enter the rental market. The decrees do not achieve this.”

We must continue to resist the siren calls for illiberal interventionism on housing issues coming from Madrid, Berlin and Brussels – which history has shown to be a failure – and press on along the path of pragmatism and common sense

For 2026, the government is forecasting a deficit at the upper limit of European rules (2.925 per cent). The use of the VAT windfall (170 million) to fund the diesel discount could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, pushing the deficit back up to 3.1 per cent 

 Xi Jinping’s country has a colossal surplus of production capacity, the result of subsidised investment aimed at boosting the annual GDP growth figure, but demand is insufficient and the domestic market is contracting