From the banks to Confindustria: here is the real opposition to the government. Meloni is annoyed with Urso

Rome. A broad coalition? The judiciary spilling its banks and seeking to overwhelm the government’s measures? Not at all. In recent days, looking at the outcome of the parliamentary hearings on the Budget Bill, Giorgia Meloni must have thought: this is our real opposition. This is who is truly managing to challenge our work, calling into question a cornerstone of the government’s philosophy such as the budget. As for the complaints from the banks – in particular from Intesa Sanpaolo’s chief executive, Carlo Messina, who spoke of ‘South American-style debt management’ – you can read all about them in Luciano Capone’s article. Suffice it to say here that that hearing, which took place yesterday in the joint Budget Committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, adds to other statements of position that signal a distancing of certain sectors from the majority and the government. So much so that yesterday, when Minister Giorgetti also appeared at the hearing before the aforementioned committee, he appeared to set out a series of responses to the various criticisms raised by the different organisations, even before MPs had taken the floor to put specific questions to him. The Minister for the Economy sought to clarify that the Budget Law “is not an isolated measure, to be assessed solely on the basis of its financial scope or immediate effects. It is a further step in the process initiated by the government since the start of the parliamentary term as part of a medium-term strategy, consistent with the commitments made and the priorities identified for the country”. So much so that it has “strengthened its credibility”. More specifically, in response to the banks as well as the insurance companies, the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Labour (MEF) asserted that the contribution requested from credit institutions is not “a levy on windfall profits, but changes to tax rates and deductibility rules defined in advance and largely temporary”. Who knows. What is certain is that the Italian Banking Association (ABI) has even floated the possibility of appealing to the Constitutional Court against a measure they consider unconstitutional. And Giorgetti’s remarks regarding a measure deemed “necessary” have done little to allay the concerns of the sector, which intends to press ahead with its complaints. On the social security front, Giorgetti admitted that the government is working to find solutions: “There is an incredible disparity – which, in my view, is also unconstitutional – between those who began contributing before 1996 and those who did so after 1996, when the Fornero law was introduced.” Moreover, it is not only the Parliamentary Budget Office that has rejected the healthcare measures. Confindustria (which, in the meantime, is celebrating the wage agreement with CGIL, CISL and UIL), when questioned on Wednesday, did not mince its words either. “What we are asking is to try to focus some resources on measures capable of having a lasting impact on competitiveness and growth. Resources are scarce and we must avoid spreading them too thinly. We have noted that many measures are short-term and sometimes involve small sums. We hope that this can be partly rectified during the parliamentary debate,” said the association’s director-general, Maurizio Tarquini. He pointed out that “43 per cent of the funding burden falls on businesses”. Even regarding the IRPEF cut, for example, whilst promoting the measure, Confindustria itself admits that “the benefit will be limited”. And it is perhaps also to “ward off” such criticism that, the day before yesterday, in an interview with La Stampa, Adolfo Urso went out on a limb: “We consider it absolutely essential to ensure that a measure as successful as the hyper-depreciation scheme under the New Transition 5.0 programme has budgetary provision secured right through to 2029. Currently, the scheme is in place until 2028, with a budget of nearly 10 billion euros, and has already mobilised investments totalling over 8 billion, with around 28,000 applications submitted.” This has once again fuelled the hopes of Confindustria, to whom the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy has been promising an extension of Transition 5.0 for as long as anyone can remember. And that, following today’s meeting with the trade unions, they will once again be heard by the government. However, to Meloni, this “rush ahead” appeared somewhat bold, not least because it was the Prime Minister herself who admitted, on the sidelines of the Budget Bill’s approval, that little progress had been made on that front, partly due to stretched resources. Further evidence of a relationship that is not exactly idyllic, with possible repercussions for Urso’s chances of returning to his ministerial post.

Luca Roberto