The game isn't over yet. The maneuver can change, but any changes will have to "be covered". The principle remains the same as in previous years: the balances of the budget law must remain unchanged. And as the appointment with the parliamentary amendments approaches, the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti tries to stop the assault on the diligence, reminding everyone of the rules of engagement.
"Two issues remain: any modification must be covered, ca va sans dire, but it is worth remembering this. Therefore 'les jeux are NOT facts', indeed we are open to proposals that are covered", explains the minister. Who to explain the second stake takes on the role of the 'magutt', the bricklayer in Lombard dialect, which he did when he was a boy: "You can't touch the load-bearing walls, but the partitions can, because they don't make the system come down". So, if some covert proposal arrives, the minister has no reason to "put up the barricades". But the parties, as we know, have their needs and sensitivities, and it will be a matter of "finding a balance between what would be desirable and what is concretely necessary", dictates the Giorgetti line.
A clear warning to parliamentarians, who are already working to define the amendments, which will be presented to the House commission by Tuesday 17th. The majority's line is to proceed with a package of "agreed amendments" with "targeted" corrective measures on healthcare, pensions, schools and universities. And therefore if for the almost 7 thousand cuts in school staff a reduction or even a postponement to 2029 is hypothesized, on pensions the aim is to loosen the squeeze on revaluations. Also under the spotlight of the parties are the exit tax (the idea is to raise the threshold), the senior citizens' card (it could be increased), the extension of the flat tax to 1% for young people and the bonus for mothers. Some responses to the Regions on car tax compensation are also possible.
Meanwhile, on the fourth and final day of hearings, new criticisms of the maneuver arise. The Cnel highlights that most of the interventions are of a "limited amount" and the resources are "dispersed in many streams" which reduce their impact.
The Parliamentary Budget Office highlights in red the "fragmented support interventions" and the fact that all "available budget spaces" are used, thus running out of room for "new initiatives or unforeseen needs".
Going into the details of the measures, the Public Accounts Authority calculates that the Irpef cut, in addition to accentuating the critical issues of the tax, will give relief above all to high incomes: the benefit goes to 89% of managers (444 euros on average), 12% of employees (52 euros) and only 1% of workers (4 euros). The PBO also does the math on healthcare: almost 40% of the resources go to the private sector, to the detriment of the public sector.
The defense of the plan of the maneuver falls as always to the head of the Economy, in a hearing also peppered with some ironic exchanges with the parliamentarians. On the day of the CEO's collapse of Intesa Sanpaolo who talks about a South American maneuver, the minister is called "Giancarlos" by the deputy of the Liberal Democratic Party Luigi Marattin. While at AVS Marco Grimaldi, who refers to the "synthesis" found in the majority, the minister does not refrain from commenting: "Maybe".
Giorgetti defends the line of "prudence" in the accounts, which "is not a constraint as an end in itself - he underlines - but a condition" to have room for difficulties. Of course "we couldn't cover everything we wanted to do", he admits: we therefore chose to proceed by "priority". The first "axis" is family and workers, but we have also tried to provide answers to young people, and then investments, security, decarbonisation. And if the "necessary" contribution requested from banks and insurance companies "is not aimed at weakening them", is the minister's clarification, in healthcare not only "the resources linked to the NHS have not been reduced, but further increases in financing have been envisaged": and this - claims Giorgetti - "is not a result to be considered a given".
