Talk of an amnesty is back, but only a third of the expected revenue was collected from the last amnesty
The majority is looking at the 2003 amnesty, but also at the one from 1985. The Campania case forms the backdrop to this
Every budget bill brings with it an amnesty. This perennial feature of every Budget Bill in recent years has cropped up once again as a possible amendment, this time too put forward by Fratelli d’Italia, thus catching the Lega off guard, as they have always been advocates of a measure to regularise housing irregularities. The idea, which is currently only a proposal, is to reopen the amnesty period, with a particular focus on Campania, where the 2003 amnesty pushed for by the Berlusconi government was blocked by the then governor Antonio Bassolino. Imma Vietri, the group leader on the Chamber of Deputies’ Social Affairs Committee, is spearheading the initiative: ‘With the amendment I will table, together with the other Campania MPs from Fratelli d’Italia, we intend to use the Budget Bill to reopen the deadline for the building amnesty introduced by the Berlusconi government in 2003, limited to unauthorised works carried out by 31 March of that year, without extending the amnesty to subsequent constructions.” She adds: “We want to put an end to a disparity in treatment that has penalised Campania for over twenty years, where the amnesty was not implemented by the regional government – then led by Antonio Bassolino – unlike in other Italian regions.”
The hypothesis under consideration
The scheme would follow the model proposed last year, which was unsuccessful. It would involve addressing the outstanding applications from the 2003 amnesty, as provided for in Article 32 of Decree-Law 269 of the Berlusconi government. The main aim of the new proposal would be to speed up the processing of applications relating to the 2003 amnesty. It would also provide for a retrospective amendment: the text would extend the application of the amnesty – which currently applies only to works completed ‘by 31 March 2003’ – to include ‘properties built in areas subject to relative building restrictions’. It should be noted, in this regard, that the 2003 amnesty had extremely limited application in restricted areas.
It is then pointed out that this amnesty was not applied by the Campania Region (a decision examined by the Constitutional Court in 2004). To remedy this shortcoming, provision is made for ‘the possibility of reopening the deadlines for the submission of new applications’. This reopening, however, applies not only to Campania but to the whole of the country.
However, among the working hypotheses, there is also one that even refers back to the first building amnesty, that of 1985. It proposes regularising a long list of unauthorised structures throughout Italia, provided they were completed by 30 September 2025. The list includes ‘ancillary structures such as porches or canopies built without, or in breach of, a building permit’, ancillary works such as balconies or loggias – again, unauthorised – as well as all renovation and refurbishment works carried out without a planning permission or in breach of it, provided they have not resulted in an increase in floor area or volume.
The final attempt
The previous attempt had been backed at the instigation of Edmondo Cirielli, then the centre-right candidate in the Campania regional elections. The initiative brings back into the spotlight a period which, for local authorities, has never really ended. And it is an attractive prospect not only in terms of pre-election support but also for the state coffers, which are running dry, even though the lessons of the past tell a different story.
