It’s politics, not constraint. The positive surprises of the Melonian maneuver

The first reaction was to point out the distance between the promises (often undoubtedly fanciful) of the electoral campaign and the contents of the 2023 budget law. The second, however, was to underline the conservative nature (in Italy , right) of some executive choices. There was no need, to tell the truth, but the debate in recent days has been responsible for clarifying, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the real trump card of the incumbent government is the opposition. An opposition visibly displaced by an undoubtedly prudent and responsible budget law from the point of view of public finance, as, in truth, the current prime minister had anticipated at the start of the electoral campaign. An expansionary budget law even less than the prospects for 2023 would have led to imagine and which for over three quarters follows directions already followed by previous executives often on the initiative and with the endorsement of what are now the opposition. An opposition displaced and consequently unable to do anything other than recite a script that has already been seen several times in the last twenty years, in a context that could – the conditional is a must – be quite different.