Government, now regulations on employment and housing. Energy urgency remains

Filed with relief over the mess on the Security decree, Giorgia Meloni aims to honour the other promise on which the government's relaunch depends: sending a clear signal to citizens on housing and work. Tomorrow opens the week circled in red on the calendar for the launch of the measures in the pipeline for 1 May, but also to untie the knots on two other games: the cut in excise duties on fuels, which expires on Friday, and the appointments of the heads of Consob and Antitrust.

In the pipeline for months, the result of the Ministry of Infrastructure's work on the side of Palazzo Chigi, it could be the first to be approved by the Council of Ministers on Tuesday, with a certain endowment of 970 million euro, spread over five years, to which should be added the 1.1 billion euro freed up for housing by the mid-term review of the Cohesion Policy and other resources. The objective is well known: to strengthen social housing and make available, among social housing and low-cost housing, more than 100,000 houses in ten years.

Decidedly more complicated is the technical work around the 1 May decree that, despite the acceleration urged by Palazzo Chigi to be able to approve it as early as 28 April, could actually reach the second Council of Ministers scheduled for the 30th. At the last meeting on Thursday, attended by the ministry's legislative office, the minister Marina Calderon and undersecretaries Alfredo Mantovano (presidency) and Claudio Durigon (labour), only a few of the nebulous points were clarified.

Financial coverage is the real unknown. Meloni has asked for the maximum effort, in the hope of being able to announce a round-digit package (one billion), but complicating the picture are the many "no's" received in Cyprus from the EU Commission and the "frugal" to a loosening of the Stability Pact to tackle the energy crisis, yesterday partially mitigated by Macron and Greek Mitsotakis's push for new common debt. The deck for Italia is short. And the optionbudgetary slippage could show up on Thursday in the majority resolution on the Dfp among the instruments the government can evaluate to meet the needs of families and businesses.

In any case, the decree should include a strengthening of the New Skills Fund (on whose coverage, about 300 million from the Anpal residues, the State General Accounting Office has however expressed doubts) and rules for 'the promotion of employment', with the extension to the end of the year of the bonus for young people (100% contribution relief for hirings) and Zes (contribution exemption for employers who hire in southern Italy, up to EUR 650 per month), thus aligning them with the bonus for disadvantaged women, which had already been extended to 31 December. Measures are also expected for riders, including the transposition of the EU directive for platform workers and the strengthening of the fight against exploitation and digital caporalism with a single recognition system.