The counter-maneuver of the Democratic Party and the fascist danger

During the electoral campaign, the accusation a Giorgia Meloni it was that once in government he would break with Europe and break the books. Now is that I didn’t. Saturday’s demonstration of the Pd against the first budget law of the centre-right it caused a certain sadness, not so much for the semi-deserted square but for the desert of content. A lot of rhetoric, which for heaven’s sake is due especially in rallies, on women and health care, but little concreteness.

The problem does not concern the criticisms of individual government measures, all more or less contestable, and in fact also contested by third party bodies such as the Bank of Italy or the European Commissionthe Court of Auditors or theParliamentary Budget Office. From the raising of the ceiling on cash payments to the removal of the obligation to accept payments with the Pos under 60 euros (a rule that the government is reneging on), from the raising of the so-called Flat tax to the announced cut in the citizen’s income, from amnesty to pensions, there are many measures which present at least questionable aspects and which the minority legitimately opposes. The problem is the overall setup of the manoeuvre. Because, as Totò recalled, it is the sum that makes the total.

Reading the “countermaneuver” of the Democratic Party, it is as if the criticism of Giorgia Meloni had been reversed. During the electoral campaign, the accusation of Enrico Letta was that the right once in government would break with Europe and break the accounts. Now, however, she is accused of not doing so. For example, the Democratic Party says that the 21 billion help against expensive energy, which are nothing more than the refinancing of the Draghi government measures, and which represent two thirds of the maneuver, last only until March-April. They are few and triple that would be needed. Cutting the tax wedge it may also be a good idea, but for the Pd 3 points are few and it must be structural. It doesn’t matter if even with the Pd in ​​government the cut was for a year but less (2 points). Even the increase in Single allowance for children it is not enough: more money is needed. on pensions the Pd calls for an increase in the fourteenth salary, the complete revaluation of the highest pensions, the extension of pension advances. In short, if the European Commission has criticized the Meloni government for failing to implement the reforms necessary to reduce the share of pension expenditure, the Democratic Party proposes to increase it further.

The Pd then proposes to increase the appropriations for the schoolfor the healthcarefor the public transportfor the businessesfor the Noon and for investments in general (as if the Pnrr funds that we will already have difficulty spending were not enough). On the expenditure front, the Pd contests the reduction of Superbonus from 110 to 90 percent (which so far has cost 64 billion, double what the government had foreseen when the Pd was in the Mef); he is, as said, against cuts on higher pensions; opposes the cut Basic income and it is also against al reduction of the discount on excise duties on fuel (measure that saves about 400 million a month). The only covers that can be read in the proposals of the dem come from the suppression of the extension of the Flat tax for the self-employed, but it’s not much (300 million), and since “strengthening the tax on extra profits” which, however, is neither defined nor quantified.

In essence, by adding up more spending and less cuts, what the Pd proposes is a budget law with a deficit of 7-8 percent instead of the 4.5 percent set by Meloni e Giancarlo Giorgetti. A maneuver that would open a frontal collision with Europe by quickly sending theor skyrocketing spreads and defaulted countryespecially in this phase of raising interest rates by the BCE to fight inflation. It is as if the Democratic Party were trying to fill the void of ideas with deficits and demagoguery. After presenting himself as the Draghi Agenda party, he takes the path of the M5s of Joseph Conte. After having shouted so much at the fascist danger, the Democratic Party risks becoming part of the fascist danger.

• Luciano Capone

• Grew up in Irpinia, in Savignano. Studies in Milan, Catholic University. Liberal by training, journalist by deformation. Al Foglio first as a reader, then a collaborator, finally an editor. I mainly deal with economics, but also with politics, investigations, culture, miscellaneous and possible