Two parliamentary passages that occurred in rapid succession last week offered a clear image of a powerful one-two delivered by Italy in the ring where the credibility of each EU country is evaluated. Unfortunately, no one had warned Italy that its opponent, against which it successfully fought, was Italy itself.
On Tuesday, the European Parliament voted on the new Stability and Growth Pact. On Wednesday, the Italian Parliament voted on the Economic and Financial Document. Let’s proceed backwards. In reality, the House and Senate were not called to actually vote on the Def, which the government decided not to present in the usual form, but to participate in a suspension exercise, holding its breath. A suspension due in part to some objective elements of uncertainty in the European institutional and political framework. But the most insidious part of the climate of suspension is — alas — made in Italy, homemade. And it has two components: a component generated in the past and a component that, I fear, we are generating in recent months and days, perhaps convinced that we are serving the interest of our country.
The component generated in the past is naturally the public debt.
We do not see sufficient awareness of the debt problem, nor sufficient will to face it, as sooner or later will be necessary, perhaps with abrupt harshness. This is an observation that I make of the current majority, but perhaps even more so of the current opposition. In fact, if we were to calculate the thousandths of responsibility of the various parties in generating, for example, the Superbonus (it would be an easy and useful exercise also pedagogically), the two previous majorities, in which FdI did not participate, did much more than what was thought humanly feasible in terms of creating deficit and debt.
With them, Parliament had achieved something very daring even on a balancing act, because in a country in which, as is known, it is politically lethal – whether right or wrong – the mere utterance of the word “wealth tax”, all those who voted for the Superbonus voted (without knowing it, I hope for them) for a wealth tax on the house, but in reverse, with the taxpayer paying a transfer of wealth to the homeownerswho on average have a better income and wealth situation than that of the majority of taxpayers.
This has led to a major redistribution of income, perverse in every respect. I was reading an article recently which explained how, in addition to the consequences on the deficit and debt, which appear more serious every day, and the aforementioned regressive effect, the Superbonus has brought the greatest benefits to incomes and to the North.
The second component of the discomfort I feel is the overall conduct of the Italian political system. And here we come to the first blow of the one-two punch, again launched against Italy by Italian MEPs last Tuesday under the eyes of all of Europe. In the European Parliament, the Italian deputies largely abstained in the vote on the new stability and growth pact (parties of the majority that supports the Meloni government and the Democratic Party), the M5S voted against and only three deputies voted in favor. No other Member State has offered such a show of disengagement. A clear message of substantial national unity against budget rules.
In these columns and also speaking in the Senate last December, on the eve of the European Council which would have decided on the matter, I suggested to the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to seriously consider whether, in the interests of Italy but also of the European Union, not it was appropriate for her to oppose her veto to that less than satisfactory agreement on the new governance. President Meloni decided not to veto (perhaps because – I know from direct experience of the June 2012 Council – it is not psychologically easy to be the only head of government who blocks an otherwise unanimous agreement and forces colleagues to sit again at the table for a complex negotiation).
But now, after Italy’s performance through its MEPs, what impression will the citizens and governments of other European countries have made?
A few months ago, dealing with the ESM, the government – despite knowing full well that Italy, through a previous executive, had signed that treaty and that the ratification process was necessary – refused to start this process. And this despite the fact that instruments for minimizing political risk had been handed to him on a platter (for example, requesting ratification with the condition that Parliament must express its opinion again should the government ever intend to make use of the ESM instruments).
Therefore, we are disconnected on the ESM level. And now we are also disconnected at the level of the most important instrument of European economic governance, the new Stability Pact. But what will happen now? When the Prime Minister, who from the birth of the government onwards has been able to create a position of respect in Europe, goes to the session of the European Council which she will have to close this package (which I don’t like) in style, what will she say or do? Will you join the position of all your colleagues, as you did in December, doing an injustice to the MEPs of your country? Or will she retract her consent to the pact, fueling a clear image of our country’s unreliability?
I conclude with a broader reflection. When the Italian Government, the Italian Parliament, authoritative former Italian Prime Ministers such as Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, who write reports requested of them by the European authorities, speak positively of the need to create a European debt, a sacrosanct necessity in certain circumstances, but who do you want to believe them, beyond their personal authority? Which country do they come from?
They come from the country whose parliamentarians in Europe, at the moment of truth, put on record with their vote the deep-rooted intolerance for any limit on deficit and debtwhich distinguishes them individually and as belonging to a national culture convinced, after dozens of evidence to the contrary, that growth and employment are achieved with public deficit and debt, perhaps only with them.
Let’s try to reflect on whether Europe is perverse, prejudiced against Italians, or whether we are not adopting – even now that we have understood how important Europe is – sloppy, counterproductive and sometimes non-respectful behavior for common sense and coherence. , of us citizens.
April 28, 2024
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