Manoeuvre, Salvini relaunches scrapping. Irpef and birthrate among government priorities

The construction site of the next budget law is still under construction. But the Minister of Infrastructure and League leader Matteo Salvini has clear ideas on what is the priority: the fiscal peace through the scrapping of tax files. And he increases the pressure on his allies and the government. He says he has already discussed the matter with the Economy Minister, his party colleague Giancarlo Giorgetti, and is optimistic: 'I am convinced we will bring it home. The final scrapping of tax bills 'will definitely be a priority for us' and 'I think it should not be a priority of the League, but of the entire government,' Salvini is playing in advance, well aware of the duel with those in the majority (FI in the lead) who are pushing instead for tax cuts for the middle class.

What room will be found in the manoeuvre depends on the resources available, an issue that the Treasury addresses with the mantra of prudence with respect to budget balances. But for Salvini, given the good performance of the economy, there should be no problem: 'We have a spread that is approaching its minimum, we have reached the French, we have a stable government, the stock market at its highest, employment at its highest. There is a decent economic situation and we should dare,' he says.

In Parliament, meanwhile, work will resume immediately after the summer recess on the League's bill for a fifth scrapping, which the Senate Finance Committee aims to close by September. Maurizio Leo, the deputy finance minister, remains cautious on the subject, and has never said he is against it, even though he recalls that a ministerial commission is working on the file-shredding bill and any intervention 'will have to fit,' he explained in a recent interview, 'into a coherent and realistic framework.

In the meantime, the government's tax priority - as promised by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni - is to continue reducing taxes by focusing on the middle class. After the cut in the structural wedge and the first form of the Irpef reform, the next step could therefore be the reduction of two points in the second rate, from 35% to 33%, enlarging the bracket up to 60,000 euro: an operation for which about four billion is needed.

Among the executive's priorities there is certainly also the birth rate issue. The demographic winter in fact has long-term implications for the sustainability of the accounts, Giorgetti does not fail to repeat, who will speak precisely about the challenge of ageing at the Rimini Meeting on Saturday. In the latest manoeuvre, the government has earmarked about 6 billion in aid for the family and the birth rate, from the newborn bonus to the one-month extension of parental leave to the bonus for mothers extended to self-employed women. 'We will evaluate the extension and strengthening of existing measures and, compatibly with available resources, new interventions,' promises Leo.