Meloni’s barrel. Excise duty discount extended (thanks to Eni). Giorgetti: Italy’s deficit will remain below three per cent

Hello, petrol prices are down another 17 cents. Never before has it been more apt to say: we’ve hit rock bottom. The Council of Ministers has approved the excise duty discount for a further ten days. The Ministry of Economy and Finance has found €130 million; the relief amounts to 17 cents per litre (on the Hormuz route) and the Council of Ministers’ meeting lasted 15 minutes. Give thanks to Eni and its CEO, ‘Siddharta’, Claudio Descalzi: the government is finding the funds to lower excise duties thanks to advance payments from energy companies, with Eni leading the way. It’s a new system. The resources are recouped, by mutual agreement and without impositions, thanks to an adjustment to profits. It’s simple: the companies advance the profits they are set to make. It’s a solution devised by Giorgetti and Descalzi, not least because petrol prices have spiralled out of control, just as Tajani’s patience with Salvini – and Salvini’s with Giorgetti – has run out. He asks him: “Loosen the purse strings. Let’s go over budget; let’s run a deficit like Germany.” Meloni promises, for the next Council of Ministers meeting, a structural measure, “selective on the basis of income”, and fears that fuel prices could trigger a rise in the cost of the shopping basket. If the word ‘extra’ were taxed, Italy would balance its books. Schlein wants to tax Eni’s windfall profits (but why Italy and not other European countries? That is what held Meloni back). And then, naturally, Salvini. Previously he had set his sights on migrants; now he is waging war on the banker in the bow tie. He keeps calling for (and takes delight when Tajani gets irritated) a tax on credit institutions. There is one piece of good news: according to Giorgetti, Italy will emerge from the infringement procedure.

All eyes are on 24 September, when Istat is due to release the figures, but there is confidence because Giorgetti is reported to have said that Italy will remain below three per cent. This is indeed a rumour, but one circulating in the right circles. It is the reason Salvini is getting all worked up; he senses the smell of expansionary measures. He is obsessed with the banks. When he takes a break, he hands the baton to Claudio Borghi, the Lega’s ‘Dada’, who attacks Tony Tajani by writing: “The choice is simple: either we run a higher deficit and tell the EU rules that Tajani loves so much to go to hell, or we tax citizens through excise duties, or we tax the banks’ enormous and anomalous profits”. Tajani, who has to defend himself from both inside and outside the government, has even got his facts mixed up regarding the billions from the Safe fund, claiming we’ve received 8.9 million. In reality, it’s eight billion euros, but Tony Tajani stands his ground, particularly on the issue of windfall profits. He reckons: “The term ‘windfall profits’ smacks of the USSR to me; it’s a dirty word”. There are just a few days to go until 4 September, the date of the Meloni government’s record-breaking event in Bari, but the real celebration is on the 24th. If it’s true that Italy’s deficit is below three per cent, there’ll be a massive party centred around Giorgetti. Salvini is calling for a budget bill of at least thirty billion and money, money. At the moment, the ‘gift’ to Italy is coming from Descalzi, the lead-free CEO.