Public accounts: debate gets under way in a half-empty Chamber: just four MPs from the ruling party. Giorgetti: ‘But I was there’

The sitting in the Chamber of Deputies has begun, during which the 2026 Public Finance Policy Document will be examined. Resolutions on the DPDP and the budgetary deviation will be put to the vote: a simple majority is required for the former, and an absolute majority for the latter. The Chamber is half-empty: there are only four members of the majority, including the rapporteur, in attendance Minister Giorgetti.

The session in the Chamber of Deputies at Montecitorio began with a low turnout of MPs, even whilst the Minister for the Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti, was speaking on the Draft Financial Plan and the request for a deviation. “But I was there!!”, the minister remarked with a smile to reporters who pointed out the number of MPs, including those from the ruling coalition, seated in the chamber. The House will vote on the resolutions concerning the Public Finance Policy Document and the report on the request for a deviation from the budget from 12.30 pm.

The request to reallocate the budget to activate the NEC safeguard clause for defence and energy “is a deliberate departure from the prudent approach I have referred to”, said the Minister for the Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti, speaking in the Chamber of Deputies. “These are measures that the committee recognises, and which the markets have recognised as sustainable within the framework of ensuring the financial sustainability of Italia’s public debt.”

In the draft resolution on the DPFP tabled by the majority, the government undertakes “to include, in the budget, measures aimed at supporting the purchasing power of households and, in particular, the most vulnerable households, to support businesses, including through the use of instruments designed to ensure their energy security, and to finance investments, particularly in infrastructure, paying particular attention to the effects of rising material prices on the economic outlook”. The document aims “to achieve the planned net expenditure trajectory, within the timeframe and for the reference period indicated in the Document and in the Report to Parliament referred to in Article 6 of Law No. 243 of 2012; to take into account, for the purposes of drafting and presenting the draft budget bill to Parliament, the outcomes of the ongoing discussions with the European authorities aimed at defining the scope and identifying the eligible measures under the national safeguard clause referred to in Article 26 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1263; to set out in the draft budget bill, pending the revision of national accounting legislation, the maximum levels of the net balance to be financed, on an accrual and cash basis, and of recourse to the financial markets, consistent with the target growth rate of general government net expenditure; to continue implementing reforms and public investment in the areas set out in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and the Medium-Term Structural Budget Plan’. A further objective is “to consider the 2026 Annual Bill on the Market and Competition (A.C. 3120) as linked to the public finance manoeuvre, in addition to those already indicated in the 2026 Public Finance Document (DFP)”.

“The Chamber, having examined the Report to Parliament” in which “it is envisaged that borrowing will be required – relating to the two-year period 2027–2028 – amounting to 0.3 per cent of GDP (up to approximately 14.4 billion) for energy-related measures and up to 0.3 per cent of GDP (up to approximately 14.4 billion) for defence-related measures. In particular, it provides for the gradual strengthening of operational and technological capabilities, in line with the objectives set within NATO”, “in an economic context characterised by a very severe inflationary spiral” does not authorise the “government to implement the provisions set out in the aforementioned report”. This is the wording of the centre-left’s draft resolution on the budget deviation.