«We have the trust of the people, of Chambers and markets. Our model passes through sacrifice, investment and work. No more LSD, laxity, subsidies and debt.”
Giancarlo Giorgetti intervenes in the Chamber on the discussion of the Def – the Chamber of the Chamber approves the majority resolution on the Def with 197 votes in favour, 126 votes against and 3 abstentions – and while not giving up the man’s habit of doing little given to suggestions verbal, he wears a more political guise than usual, sending some messages and dictating some harsh and cutting judgments. The attack is above all on the Superbonus, a boulder that risks weighing its ballast on the public budget for years. An “abnormal and unjustified” measure that “has created a monster that has destroyed public finances in recent years and in the years to come”. Giorgetti recalls how building bonuses have existed since at least 1996 and have “contributed to the renewal of the building stock and also to growth”. A phenomenon that did not occur with the latest building bonus: «How wonderful it would be to have a Superbonus that boosts GDP, says Giorgetti, but how bad it is to create a serious dilemma on who has to make decisions, whether to finance the Superbonus or limit transfers to healthcare, school, culture. Whoever decided on this type of policy decided to put them on the Superbonus and take them away from someone else.”
Then there is the chapter of the new Stability Pact approved by the EU Parliament. Giorgetti says that the one just voted without the votes of the Italian MEPs “is certainly a compromise, it is not the proposal that the undersigned had brought forward at the European level”. However, it is «a step forward compared to the budget rules that would come back into force next year. Certainly this stability and growth pact does not exactly meet the criteria of those who think that growth depends on the LSD model, i.e. laxity, debt and subsidies. I continue to think that the growth model is what made this country great in the post-war period and it is what passes for sacrifice, investment and work.” The minister indicates some guidelines followed by the government. Employment is at its highest because “we invested in jobs and not in benefits.” Furthermore, «in the latest budget law we found additional resources to reconcile motherhood with work. We will continue in this direction because it is fundamental, because with the birth rates of this country there is no welfare system that can hold up.” Finally, “all our efforts, starting from the reduction of contributions, have gone to the protection of low incomes and large families”. The government «has deserved the trust of the people first and foremost, seeing the election results it seems to me that it is there; of Parliament, and it seems to me there is; and we also deserved the trust of the markets, which is important with a debt like the Italian one.”
Giorgetti also allows himself a joke on the sidelines of the proceedings. A quote from the minister had been published in La Stampa, saying he replied “maybe, I’m tired” to the question whether the vote on the new Stability Pact could represent a no-confidence vote for him. The denial comes accompanied by a smile.
“I’ve done 74 laps, I’m a beast.”
