Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her satisfaction on Tuesday after her Council of Ministers gave the ‘green light’ to the budget law for 2023, which includes a package of measures valued at 35 billion euros to combat the price escalation the country is facing.
The ultra-right-wing Meloni has indicated that this is «a courageous maneuver», as well as «coherent with the commitments made to the Italian people», since it bets on the future and has a certain «political vision», as reported by the AdnKronos news agency.
The budget law, which will now pass parliamentary scrutiny and must be approved before December 31, will help, according to the Italian Prime Minister, «middle-income citizens and not the rich».
The Prime Minister explained at a press conference that, of the 35 billion, at least 21 billion will be allocated to the energy sector in the context of the price increase resulting from the war in Ukraine, as reported by the newspaper ‘Corriere della Sera’.
Among the most noteworthy measures of the law is also an increase in minimum pensions from 523 to 600 euros, a decision that had already been advanced by the Italian deputy prime minister, Antonio Tajani.
It also provides for a social voucher for the lowest incomes that would be used for purchases of basic necessities and which is currently granted to people over 65 years of age and parents of children under three years of age with special requirements, as detailed by the aforementioned agency.
However, the Meloni government has announced that it will put an end as of 2024 to the Citizenship Income, a subsidy-like allowance approved by the 5 Star Movement (M5S) in 2018 for people in social exclusion and the unemployed.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Italy will enter recession in 2023, after forecasting a 0.2 percent contraction for next year. The Government, for its part, expects the Italian economy to shrink to register a growth of 0.6 percent, more than two points less than in 2022.
