The 2027 Budget under fire: trade unions, banks and local councils are criticising the government’s measures

 The government is under siege. From Genoa, where the CISL is launching its campaign, to Naples, where the mayor and president of ANCI, Gaetano Manfredi, is calling for a meeting with the government. Right up to Rome, where hearings are set to begin on Monday in the Chamber of Deputies’ Budget Committee: an opportunity for local authorities, trade unions and associations to make their case.

Three measures are ‘truly serious’ in the view of CISL secretary Daniela Fumarola, and need to be changed. The 15 per cent flat tax on income up to 100,000 euros for the self-employed, because, for the same level of income, employees and pensioners pay more than three times as much tax. The crackdown on pension indexation, described as ‘pure injustice’. And the cut of nearly 7,000 posts in the education sector, which is ‘absurd and short-sighted. We need immediate consultation’.

There has been a lack of dialogue so far. Not only with the trade unions, who were only summoned to Palazzo Chigi on Friday the 13th, by which time the government had ‘already decided everything’, as the general secretary of the CGIL, Maurizio Landini, complained. Banks and insurance companies, too – which are set to bear the brunt of the budget measures – are complaining about the lack of dialogue. ‘Do we have to take legal action to make ourselves heard?’, asked Giovanni Liverani, president of ANIA (the National Association of Insurance Companies). In an interview with MF, he expressed his deep disappointment – both with the approach and the substance – at the additional taxation of nearly 1.4 billion over the next three years. The insurance companies will present their proposals to the Chamber of Deputies on Monday. The ABI (Italian Banking Association) is also preparing for its hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, and for the meeting at Palazzo Chigi on Friday with other business organisations. To this end, it will be drawing on the expertise of leading legal and tax firms, which may include the practice of former Minister for the Economy and MP Giulio Tremonti – who has seen his fair share of budgetary manoeuvres – and that of the legal expert Giuseppe Morbidelli.

One of the issues requiring further examination is the Superbonus credits spread over ten years. The Deputy Minister for the Economy, Maurizio Leo, has expressed optimism regarding the possibility of changes, but there is considerable concern amongst banks, the construction sector and the technical professions. The funding for the Budget Law comes mainly from tax increases, and almost half of the total is borne by the financial sector, as highlighted by the Observatory on Italian Public Accounts, headed by Carlo Cottarelli: the tax burden is thus set to rise from 43 per cent in 2026 to 43.2 per cent in 2027.

The monitoring body set up by the former special commissioner for spending review also rejects the spending cuts, which amount to ‘only’ 2.6 billion – a meagre sum for a country where public spending accounts for over 51 per cent of GDP.