Italy Coalition Struggles With Budget as Renzi Joins Critics
Italian Coalition Struggles With Budget as Renzi Joins Critics
(Bloomberg) -- Italy’s budget appeared to pass a first European test unscathed last month, but at home the government coalition is still quarreling over the details of planned funding measures, with former Premier Matteo Renzi pushing for no new taxes.
“On one thing we won’t budge,” Renzi said in an interview with Il Messaggero on Saturday, referring to taxes. He added he wants the legislature to continue through 2023, with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte as leader or not. In particular, he wants a planned tax on company cars to be scrapped, according to the report.
The Italian coalition of former enemies the Democratic Party and the anti-establishment Five Star, born to stop Matteo Salvini’s early election push, is facing the mammoth task of reversing 23 billion euros ($26 billion) of planned VAT taxes while keeping the country’s finances in check. That has left little money for tax cuts and growth-boosting measures.
Renzi and Five Star have criticized Conte’s planned taxes on company cars and plastic, and over penalties for vendors for not using electronic-payment terminals, leaving the coalition bogged down in the budget details after suffering a drubbing in a regional vote. The government doesn’t have a project for the country or an industrial policy, said Maurizio Stirpe, vice chairman of the employers’ association, Confindustria, in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore.
The Five Star movement replied to Renzi’s interview in a Facebook post Saturday, saying “this legislature doesn’t have a future if someone is trying to challenge Conte with political maneuvering.” Finance Minister Roberto Gualtieri said in an interview with La Stampa on Sunday that he was surprised by the criticism over the budget as the plan had already been approved by the government majority. He said he was open to changes, once the bill is in parliament.
Taxes on plastic and company cars, worth a combined 1.7 billion euros, may be delayed, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.
To contact the reporter on this story: Marco Bertacche in Milan at mbertacche@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Kingdon at ckingdon@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Michael Gunn
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
