The Italian government won a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives and, after sometimes chaotic negotiations, passed the budget law for 2023 through the parliamentary chamber. On Friday evening, 221 MPs initially expressed their confidence in the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, 152 were against.
After a session that lasted hours until Saturday morning on the individual points of the budget law, 197 parliamentarians finally voted in favor of the project and 129 rejected it. Now the law comes into the Senate; it is to be discussed in the second chamber from December 27 and passed before the turn of the year. It would be a great success for Meloni to wrap up the household in 2022. In the past few weeks and days, there had been some violent upheaval and criticism from the opposition of the procedure.
Meloni’s first budget provides for significantly higher spending than previously expected. New debt will thus climb to 4.5 percent in relation to economic output. In September, 3.4 percent had been calculated. This year, Italy’s new debt adds up to 5.6 percent of economic output.
21
billion euro are earmarked for tax breaks and help with energy costs.
In order to mitigate the high energy costs, more than 21 billion euros are earmarked for tax breaks and other aid for companies and households. Next to Greece, Italy is the most indebted country in the euro zone. The entire debt mountain is around 145 percent of the gross domestic product.
One of the central points of contention was the government’s forced abolition of the “Reddito di Cittadinanza”, a state support comparable to citizen’s income or basic security. In 2023, this will only be paid out for seven months for the unemployed. If you turn down a job, you lose it immediately. In the end, the negotiations were about whether or not this job offer had to be “appropriate” for the qualifications of the person.
In mid-December, the EU Commission was generally positive about the Italian budget draft – but criticized several measures that the Brussels authorities believed were incompatible with earlier recommendations to Italy, which is heavily indebted.
Dispute over permission to shoot wild boar in cities
However, the Meloni government only implemented part of the recommendations from Brussels: the government canceled the originally planned relaxation of the obligation for retailers to accept card payments for small amounts as well.
However, the right-wing government stuck to the increase in the upper limit for cash payments from 2,000 to 5,000 euros and an amnesty for tax debts of up to 1,000 euros from the period between 2000 and 2015 – despite criticism from the EU Commission.
In the days leading up to the vote, there was excitement about comparatively smaller measures that were woven into the budget law: These included, for example, the permission to shoot wild boar in cities or protected areas if the authorities deemed this necessary for security reasons.
In recent years, wild boar have made more inroads into urban areas. In Rome, for example, whole gangs are repeatedly sighted running into inhabited areas and digging through the rubbish there. Accidents also happened. Critics accuse the government of wanting to use the measures to make it easier to hunt other wild animals, such as wolves. (dpa, AFP, Reuters)
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