Manoeuvre, final go-ahead with 216 yes votes. Giorgetti: 'Effort on low and medium incomes'
The final OK came after explanations of vote from both the majority and the opposition
by Lorenzo Pace
Key points
Final green light to the manoeuvre. At 12.51pm, the text of the Budget law was approved in the House with 216 yes, 126 against and 3 abstentions. Immediately after the vote, Democratic Party deputies held up signs reading 'Disaster Meloni'.
During the explanations of vote, PD secretary Elly Schlein attacked, saying that it is 'a manoeuvre that does not deal with the real basic needs of Italians', because it 'does not put anything on the bills', but also that it 'helps the rich' and 'provides for zero growth'.
The Minister for Relations with Parliament, Luca Ciriani, on the other hand, thanked the deputies 'for their work'. It is 'a serious and concrete manoeuvre,' he said, 'which is attentive to families, businesses and which, continuing what has been done in past years, further reduces taxes and increases the national health fund to the highest ever level'.
Giorgetti: 'This is not a manoeuvre for the rich'
It is not a manoeuvre for the rich according to Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti: 'It is absolutely false,' he said after the approval, 'just read the documents of the UPB, the ECB and institutions that are notoriously not friends of the government. Everyone says that the effort we have made focuses on low-middle incomes, especially for employees with low-middle incomes. If you go and look at the tax revenue trends certified by the Internal Revenue Service, you will find that taxation on employees generates less revenue while taxes on capital and income increase by several billion, something that should be emphasised.
Confidence in the House with 219 yes
The confidence in the House, however, came on Monday evening. It was 219 yes votes, 125 no votes. A vote of confidence arrived late, by about an hour and a half, due to the controversy of the previous hours. On the text, which arrived armoured from the Senate, there was a lightning discussion in the Commission without any possibility of modification, given that the third reading is precluded, under penalty of the provisional exercise. For this, the oppositions attacked the government of having reduced Parliament to a 'paper-pusher' with a debate that was once again 'mortified'.
