Government, bonus dilemma for Meloni. So far they cost us 185 billion

Bonus jungle melons. One of the first challenges that the leader of the Brothers of Italy will have to face, in addition to the expensive bills, will be the direction to assume the facilitation policy that has marked the last years of the various governments. A choice dictated by events that cost more than 185 billion euros in three years. The virtually unbroken series of exceptional emergencies that have hit Italy over the past three years – the arrival of Covid and the lockdown, then the resumption of infections, and finally the energy crisis – has had a profound impact on the country’s economic and social fabric. . But it also changed, perhaps forever, the relationship between companies and citizens and the State, which came to the rescue of the economy and social cohesion with the most impressive assistance and support work since the post-war period.

A turning point that began with the pandemic, to help citizens and, above all, the self-employed and companies to overcome confinement unharmed. The first bonuses arrive with Cura Italia with checks between 800 and 1000 euros intended for a series of VAT numbers, fishermen, workers in the entertainment world or seasonal tourism. To these – even if they are not direct aid – are added the credit interventions of the Liquidity Decree, which made it possible to guarantee, as early as November 2020, 100 billion for State funding.

After the lockdown, assistance measures multiply. An obvious path when leafing through the titles of the most important decrees of the last two governments: relaunch, then refreshments, support, aid, in bis, tris and even quater versions.

An exceptional amount of aid measures as well as the amount of resources distributed are exceptional. The refreshment points alone, calculated by Cgia di Mestre in January 2021, received 29 billion euros of public funds during 2020. The support of the Draghi government in the following year, 2021, mobilized – always the artisans calculate – another 21.4 billion of euros. In total, interventions of more than 50 billion euros. To these must then be added the money disbursed by the INPS in the form of supplementary funds, transfers and much more. Taking into account the global public commitment to Covid-19 welfare measures in favor of workers, citizens and families for 2020 is the same Institute, in the 2021 budget: “About 70 billion euros, of which 40 from appropriations in the State budget and 30 from the Institute’s budget».

The result was a multiplication of bonuses and reliefs: from shopping to holidays, to those who stayed to work during confinement, to alternative mobility, but also to support for kindergartens and divorced parents. For companies, in addition to subsidies, discounts on contributions, special tax credits, dehors deductions.

The explosion of the energy crisis in 2022 forced the executive to stay on the path traced by his predecessor. To counter the rise in energy costs, outgoing Economy Minister Daniele Franco put pen to paper in the introduction of Nadef, around 57 billion euros were invested in 2022 alone, equivalent to 3% of GDP. To these, we must add the 5.5 billion destined for the same purpose in 2021. And these also arrived in the form of tax credits, discounts and bonus notes.

Useful and necessary interventions, even if due. After all, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine – the main, but not the only, driver of rising energy prices – are exceptional events that required exceptional responses. And they are asking for more: the total support account is likely to rise again with the next move. But it is legitimate to ask how long it will be possible to endure such an effort. Also because, as Franco always remembers at Nadef, in 2024 “the Stability Pact will come into force again”. And we’ll have to do everything right.