After the night marathon at 6:30 am and with relative calm in the morning, the course of the Budget Law returned to turbulent waters and at the end of the afternoon, after continuous changes in schedules, the Budget Committee had still not managed to approve a single amendment. This situation will inevitably lead to an extension of the length of stay in the Chamber with the prospect that the final vote will even be postponed to Saturday morning, Christmas Eve.
However, most remain convinced that the deadlines for final approval will be respected and that it will not be necessary to resort to the provisional exercise. To end the afternoon, a sort of ultimatum from the Mef also arrived: if Parliament does not vote on the changes, the text approved by the Council of Ministers can be approved without any problems for the government. The day was also enlivened by a kind of mystery about the introduction in the budget law of a penal shield for a series of fiscal crimes. A hypothesis that unleashed the anger of the opposition, in a climate already overheated by the continuous postponements. In the end, there are no traces of the amendment of the discord in the last folder presented by the government: Pd and M5S sing victory for having managed to block the blitz, while the majority speaks of a storm in a teapot.
As reported by the leader of the FdI group, Tommaso Foti, “the proclaimed victory of the Democratic Party for an amendment, or the fiscal truce, which is supposedly withdrawn when it was never filed, is quite incomprehensible. Evidently the budget law is not the adequate instrument for the purpose of the measure in question. This does not exclude that the provision in question is not included in another provision and that it may find a suitable place. It will be the majority that will decide which one is right”.
However, the government seems determined to close, as evidenced by the position taken by the Mef that leaks its conditions. “In case Parliament decides not to change the budget law, the text already approved in the CDM serves perfectly for the MEF”, explain sources from Via XX Settembre. “The text that will be trusted in the Chamber, in this case” it is explained “will be the one voted by the Government, with the exception of the amendment of the Pos”. However, a unanimous chorus of criticism comes from Pd, M5S and Third Po. Letta attacks the government and the majority and asks “to end the chaos or there will be an interim exercise”.
Instead, Conte takes part in an emergency meeting of the M5S and claims to stop the penal shield: «We are on December 20th and they are still rewriting entire parts of the maneuver. What’s worse is that they use this time to prepare kit for the crafty escapees. Icing on the cake. Do not dare the majority to deposit it. Not even Calenda offers discounts. He calls a press conference and summarizes: “The point is that the maneuver situation got completely out of control. The process itself demonstrates that this government does not have a majority capable of holding the legislature”.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
