Sun, Dec 30, 2018 page1

• Italian government scrambles to pass next year’s budget

  • AFP, ROME
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  Italy’s populist government was yesterday racing to get a revised budget for next year through parliament before the year-end, despite complaints that it was written by Brussels and being rammed through without debate.

  Key measures in the budget have been watered down as the government tries to avoid being punished by the European Commission and markets.

  The Italian Senate last week passed the draft in a vote of confidence that avoided discussing about 700 amendments proposed by the coalition of the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S) and the anti-immigration League party, but provoked acrimonious scenes over the lack of substantive debate.

  

  A protester holds up a placard depicting Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, US President Donald Trump and Brazilian president-elect Jair Bolsonaro that reads: “homophobes, racists, sexists” at a rally of members and supporters of the Italian opposition Democratic Party outside Palazzo Montecitorio in Rome yesterday.

  Photo: AFP

  Similar scenes were repeated on Friday in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, where the session was suspended after copies of the budget were thrown around, leaving the government to again resort to a vote of confidence yesterday or today.

  If next year’s budget is not passed before tomorrow, the government would continue to function on a monthly basis using this year’s budget.

  “There was no deliberate wish by the government to avoid discussion,” Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told a year-end news conference on Friday as the opposition Italian Democratic Party filed a complaint with the Italian Constitutional Court over the sidelining of parliament.

  Conte, a lawyer, is not a member of either of the ruling parties and has worked to achieve compromises between the parties and with Brussels since the government was formed in June.

  In a historic first, the European Commission in October rejected Italy’s big-spending budget, which promised a universal basic income and scrapped pension reform.

  However, Italy last week agreed to reduce the cost of both of its landmark measures and is now committed to not adding to its colossal 2 trillion euro (US$2.29 trillion) debt load next year.

  In the latest hiccup to the tightly balanced revised budget, charities were on Thursday up in arms over a sudden decision to double their tax rate from 12 to 24 percent.

  M5S leader and Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi di Maio bore the brunt of criticism, as he had said that the budget would “end poverty.”

  There was no time to remove the measure before the end of the year, so the law would have to be changed again next month, he said.

  Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s League has also had to climb down on costly pension reform.

  The government has struggled to come up with a budget that pleases its voters, Brussels and markets, with many Italians complaining about measures being watered down to placate the European Commission.

  The EU and Italy negotiated intensely, with both sides worried that a protracted feud would alarm markets and ignite a debt crisis in the eurozone’s third-biggest economy.

  Without the compromise, Italy would have ultimately faced a fine of up to 0.2 percent of the nation’s GDP after a long and rancorous process with its eurozone partners.

  The talks centered on a so-called “structural deficit,” which includes all public spending minus debt payments.
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