Salvini on the Pnrr: “It’s not the New Year’s lottery, that money is on loan, it must be spent well”

After the Press interview with Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on the now more than divisive issue of how to spend the rain of billions (over 200) that will arrive on the country from the Pnrr, today several political leaders – both majority and opposition – express on the subject. Starting with the vice premier Salvini who commented on the sidelines of his visit to the Salone del Mobile in Milan: «On the Pnrr, the priority of the League is to spend everything but spend well». And he added: «I’m running like crazy from North to South, even on April 25 and May 1 we will be at work to unblock building sites, because it means work, speed and safety, therefore money to spend yes by 2026, but to spend good because it’s borrowed money.’

To those who asked him if all the funds from the Pnrr will be used, the deputy premier replied: «I count yes, but the important thing is that you use them well. It’s not the New Year’s lottery, in which I found 100 euros and I have to spend all 100 by midnight, otherwise I lose them. This is borrowed money, so the important thing is to spend it and spend it well. For example – he added in conclusion – if they gave me an extra billion against water leakage, I would start building sites tomorrow morning ».

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani also spoke on the matter, explaining that on the stadiums in Florence and Venice, envisaged by the Pnrr, Europe had accepted the proposals elaborated by the previous government: «We will do everything to ensure that the construction of the two plants both in Florence and in Venice: we intend to work to use all the available funds».

On the other hand, the Pd deputy Mariangela Madia was very critical of the statements made by Minister Crosetto to La Stampa (“We don’t know how to spend 200 billion: we only take the funds that we will use”): “The government is giving up on the Pnrr – she says – it seems that they are please someone to invest that money. Today the Minister of Defense speaks. We wonder why him. After 7 months Meloni Giorgetti and Fitto have not come to tell us what projects they want to carry on. There is no transparency because I think they don’t even know what they are”. majority, within which everyone says the opposite of everything, but also its total inadequacy with respect to the management of those funds that can revitalize the country’s infrastructure, schools and health care». He presses on: «These statements are even more surreal if we take into account that, according to what Gentiloni reported, the executive has asked Europe for additional loans. We are now in chaos and the Meloni government only demonstrates more and more every day how incapable and inadequate it is to manage this great opportunity for the country”. He concludes: «We still have time to use the resources that President Conte has obtained for Italy. The government accepts our help and does not waste this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.

On the other hand, he shares Crosetto’s statements, Osvaldo Napoli, of the national Action secretariat: «With the intellectual honesty that I have always recognized from his old friend, the minister told the truth: the king is naked. Italy will not take all the money provided for us by Europe because we are not in a position to spend it and by not spending it we should return it perhaps after having spent it even badly”. Naples explains: «Crosetto said what Prime Minister Meloni denied until the other day. And that Minister Salvini had overshadowed a few weeks ago, immediately denied by Meloni. However, I also remember that the Minister of Defence, some time ago, had urged the opposition to give their contribution on the Pnrr. On this point he knows well that he knocks down a door immediately opened by Carlo Calenda and Azione, who have always been willing to give their contribution even if they have not been listened to ».

After reading Crosetto’s interview with the Press, Federico Fornaro (Pd): «Crosetto talks about roads, explaining that as an investment they are better than stadiums, not knowing that the Pnrr does not provide for roads, but only iron. And more generally, in his interview, the tone is defeatist perhaps because the center-right has never felt the true father of the Pnrr in his heart, that is to say the Next Generation EU which has priorities such as climate protection and digital relaunch. And not feeling them your own, he throws in the towel ».