The government is preparing to introduce the 2024 budget law to the Parliament: After the fluctuation in the majority for two weeks, the parties supporting the executive led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni found the field. Many of the rules in the drafts that have been circulating in recent days have been confirmed; in others, minor changes were made to please everyone. We talk about this with Nicola Fratoianni, national secretary of the Italian Left and parliamentarian of the Verdi Sinistra alliance.
We finally have the definitive text of the 2024 budget
“Yes. By a sort of sleight of hand, they have managed to cobble together in this budget the absolute absence of any structural measures and a set of options that do not respond to the most pressing problems, namely inequalities, which are becoming increasingly evident. While procurement collapses, wages and pensions are eroded by inflation, the less affluent classes will be severely punished.
What punishment do you think he will give you the most?
“Definitely the option to allocate resources to healthcare. Despite the accounting tricks of those who talk about an increase in resources in absolute terms (a grossly inadequate increase compared to the state of the national healthcare system), the real issue is the relationship of investment to GDP. The ratio of investment to gross domestic product is close to 10 percent, but at least “I’m not saying we should get closer to France and Germany, which are well above the European average of 7 percent.”
The real surprise was the increase in VAT on diapers, sanitary pads and baby products. Wasn’t that a family rule?
“Meloni explained to us that they did not increase it, they just eliminated the reduction, but it is called an increase. Millions of Italian women will be affected and their parents will have to pay more for basic and obvious needs: This is really surprising because it was one of the main warhorses in the election campaign and it is quite shameful towards his own voters It was a mockery.
Speaking of election promises, there is no quota of 104, there is a quota of 103, which includes much more
“There is little to say. They managed to do worse than the Fornero reform by a number of measures, including restrictions on windows, obstacles to the possibility of leaving with a good pension and aggravated penalties instead.”
On the day they closed the budget agreement, they announced that he would be directly elected prime minister. Did they want to change the focus?
“This is one of those classic cases of hoping that this was a weapon of mass distraction, that is, that the choice of the moment was functional in diverting attention from an inadequate and harmful manoeuvre. If there had been genuine intent instead, that is, to so clumsily attack the Constitution of the Republic would be serious indeed. There is no place in the world.” There is no ‘prime ministry’ in his country, they tried it in Israel for a few years, then it was canceled because that’s what happened. It is clearly dysfunctional. If this continues, it will result in delegitimizing and reducing the powers of the President, who saved the country in difficult times during these crisis years. The truth is this “Which we are still facing. Moreover, this is another open demand for full power, coming at a time when the government has already marginalized the function of Parliament by breaking all records in the use of votes of confidence and amendments of the majority parties. In fact, when we look at it, they are already giving what they want.”
Together with Lorenzo Pregliasco, director of YouTrend, we simulated that Meloni’s government would have fewer numbers today if we had voted for possible future reform. Can’t reform solve the problem of chronic political instability?
“Such a constitutional reform would harm the quality of democracy. We can debate for a long time the need that all governments have to change the electoral law at every turn of the wheel. It will suffice to point out that those who do this usually hit a wall and then regret it. Maybe Giorgia Meloni and his majority also have this He needs to think about the matter.”
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Source: Today IT
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.
