Salvini: “Whoever pays for coffee with a credit card is a pain in the ass”. And Giorgetti on the Pos: “Change restaurant if an operator refuses it”

First the deputy premier Matteo Salvini who, on the sidelines of the Open Arms process, let himself go on a joke about the Pos: «I am a liberal, everyone must be free to pay as they want. If one wants to pay two euros for a coffee with a credit card, he’s just a pain in the ass». To conclude: «I try to pay in cash, because I like to go and withdraw from the ATM». Obviously a hot topic and on which the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti also spoke, who in the Chamber this afternoon addressed the question of the limit on the use of the POS. «I say it with a joke: change restaurants. I believe that if all those who find restaurateurs or merchants who do not charge with the Pos change restaurant, the answer would be that all shops would have one ». Giorgetti thus intervened in the response to the findings made by Luigi Marattin of Italia Viva on the rule which provides for no penalties for merchants who do not charge up to 60 euros with the Pos.
The reactions to Salvini’s words
And obviously the reactions to the deputy premier’s joke were not long in coming: «Salvini is happy with the first maneuver by the Meloni government because it favors tax evasion, money laundering and various crafty people. For the deputy prime minister, anyone who pays for coffee with an ATM is a pain in the ass, but he is a normal person who has nothing to hide. On the other hand, those who persist in raising the cash ceiling, those who set a minimum expenditure ceiling with the POS do not help Italians but only that underground economy which in 2020 Istat estimates give at 174.6 billion euros, with an impact on the GDP of 10.5%» says the group leader of the Greens and the Left, president of the mixed group of the Senate, Peppe De Cristofaro.
And the secretary of Più Europa Benedetto Della Vedova. «Salvini, who defines pain in the ass who wants to use electronic money for small amounts, also highlights in this the culturally reactionary nature of the sovereign right. The idea of ​​the beautiful ancient world, in this case that of only banknotes, which was not so beautiful, is however gone. Paying by card or by telephone is not an obligation but an option that must be recognized for everyone».