Meloni’s “baking” session: excise duties cut in the Council of Ministers, but chaos at Ilva. The electoral law is giving Tajani a headache

Rome. A pale and pensive expression. Meloni and Giorgetti have found the resources to cut excise duties, but the news is that Ilva is at risk of closing down – and this time for real – following a ruling by the Milan Court of Appeal. Where is Urso? Where has he hidden? It’s a Cabinet meeting without a filter – just like cigarettes – an emergency Cabinet meeting where all sorts of ideas are being bandied about. The outlandish idea of taxing tobacco is doing the rounds. Travel or vape? The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) says: “It’s not our proposal. Let’s not joke about this.” Salvini plays the tough guy: “Out of the question. That would mean more taxes.” No one wants to face the press. Giorgetti steps up, concerned about the fate of the Taranto steelworks: “The ruling risks throwing the sale process into disarray.” To signal that the government is saving the holidays, a 17-cent-per-litre discount has been arranged – totalling 125 million euros – until 6 August. Tajani sounds the alarm and warns Meloni about the electoral law: “I can’t guarantee my supporters’ votes on the preference list.” Marina Berlusconi is like Melville’s scribe: she’d rather not. Never before has it been more apt to say that the government is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Meloni, who is visiting Chiomonte in Val di Susa – the ‘valley of wrath’ – this morning, has ordered that resources be found to bring diesel prices back below two euros, which has now become the psychological threshold; the idea is that even a thousandth of a euro above that level warrants a flurry of decrees: “Hurry up.” The news of a tax on cigarettes, reported by Il Messaggero, infuriates her allies. Whose idea was it? Forza Italia and the Lega pin it on Meloni because “now that she’s given up smoking…”. The State Accounting Office finds one hundred million (from antitrust fines and structural funds). Is it enough? Just a few minutes after the Council of Ministers meeting, the headlines already read: “Discount on diesel, but nothing on petrol” because, as Bruno Munari would say, borrowing the title of his children’s book, we are the country of “Mai contenti”. In a video, Meloni explains the decree: “We know it doesn’t solve the problem. But it is a timely and responsible response”.  At the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), scepticism prevails because, whilst it is true that the cost of diesel is rising, it fluctuates from day to day, and legislating in the heat of the moment is always a blue-camp mistake. Giorgetti, the minister in charge of the discount scheme, pale and pensive, is getting ready. Tajani, in a video reminiscent of the late Berlusconi, calls for funds to scrap the vehicle tax and to lower the personal income tax rate by 35 per cent, but forgets (as Conte and Patuanelli point out) that the rate has already been reduced. There’s already a whiff of a budget deviation in the air, rather than salt. At a press conference, Giorgetti is asked about Tajani and his demands, and Giorgetti points out that “precisely because it is a budget deviation, it must be used very intelligently and in a targeted manner”. There is this shocking news: the closure of Ilva by decree, just as it was due to be sold off. No one has the courage to say it, but the truth is that the government and the Ministry of Economy and Finance have come to the conclusion that there is no future for that factory. Giorgetti adds: “If there are health issues, it makes no difference whether the owner is public or private.” The Council of Ministers meeting lasts just long enough to fill up a car. Another is scheduled for 4 August to extend the tax cuts once more. It will go ahead with a ragged majority. On the sidelines of the Council of Ministers meeting, Meloni, Salvini and Tajani discuss the amendment on wiretapping – which Forza Italia opposes – and the electoral law. Tajani, who is due to meet the parliamentary groups tomorrow for a summer farewell, confides to Meloni: “I cannot guarantee their vote on the preferential voting system.” To avoid a rift with Forza Italia, the amendment on wiretapping (to be extended) will be declared inadmissible. This is not enough for Marina Berlusconi, nor for Stefania Craxi, who is the foremost among her loyalists. A further possibility, another compromise, to accommodate Tajani is this: to increase the number of constituencies and the number of ‘locked’ list leaders. The Ilva furnaces are being shut down and the two Forza Italia furnaces are being fired up: the electoral law is currently a blank slate.