The League’s pressure continues, focusing on expanding the protected market for electricity and gas bills, after the approval of the Energy Decree by the Council of Ministers. After Matteo Salvini spoke of an “error” that needs to be remedied, the leader of the group in the Chamber of the Via Bellerio party, Riccardo Molinari, reiterates: “We consider, however, that a form of protection, given the current situation of energy costs , must be found. Minister Pichetto Fratin is working and we will negotiate with the European Commission an extension of a few months, otherwise we will have to understand with national legislation how to protect these users”. With the end of the protected market, in the absence of an extension, Italian families will have to choose their operator for the supply of electricity and gas.
But let’s see in detail what needs to be done and when. Currently, around 9 million Italian families join the protected energy market (9 million electricity users and 6 million gas users). The locked energy tariff regime will end on January 10th for gas and on April 1st for electricity. electricity. From that moment on, you can decide which operator to trust based on the rates available on the free market. For this reason, the Energy Authority has already opened an online portal to compare offers at ilportaleofferte.it. And for those who won’t choose after that date? There is no problem because there will be a transition period with gradual protections that cannot last more than 3 years. There will be territorial auctions in which suppliers will win “packages” of customers. Then the transition to new suppliers will be automatic.
But not everyone will have to deal with the free market. They are the so-called vulnerable: certain categories of users, such as those over 75 years old, those who benefit from bonuses because they are in specific economic conditions, those who have life-saving machines at home and those who benefit from law 104. Meanwhile , the political controversy continues, with the Democratic Party accusing the government of forcing Italians to pay an unexpected tax. The leader of the Dem group in the Chamber, Chiara Braga, attacks the government, calling on it to stop everything: «Let it move forward to do what it didn’t do this year: expand the auctions and be careful to protect Italian families». The president of FdI deputies, Tommaso Foti: «What Braga boldly defines as the “Meloni tax”, an invention that Schlein demands that she use, as well as her colleagues – that is, the liberalization of the public services market – was voted by Braga itself in the two previous legislatures. In fact, the Democratic Party, in the previous governments of Conte II and Draghi, and before that with Gentiloni, imposed the end of the protected market to the point of including it in the Pnrr with the M2C2-7 measure”.
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.
