Incoherent praise of Salvini: he promised to abolish excise duties but increased them

In 2018, fresh from success at the polls, Matthew Salvini announced his intention to fulfill a solemn electoral promise: “At the first Council of Ministers, we will cancel excise duties on petrol”. He didn’t do anything about it, neither at the first nor at the last Council of the Conte government of which he was deputy prime minister and minister of the interior. Now that he is Transport Minister in the Meloni government, and therefore with more direct responsibility on the subject, Salvini has done the exact opposite: excise duties on fuel have increased since 1 January, with the definitive abolition of the 30 cents per liter discounts introduced by the Draghi government which had already been cut by 40 percent in December. The unpopular decision, entirely made in the League, given that it was taken in agreement with Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, has its own economic rationale. Fuel prices are constantly decreasing: according to surveys by the Ministry of the Environment, already in mid-December the reduction in prices had absorbed the 12 cent increase in excise duties decided in November. From 1 January, with the further increase of 18 cents per litre, petrol and diesel cost less at the pump than in June, when they cost respectively 2.03 euros and 1.97 euros per litre.