Italy approves Meloni’s first budget

The Italian government easily won a vote of confidence in the Senate on its expansionary 2023 budget, winning final approval from parliament just days before the year-end deadline.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s first budget raises next year’s deficit to 4.5% of Gross Domestic Product, up from 3.4% forecast in September, and allocates more than 21 billion euros in tax breaks and bonuses to help businesses and households to cope with the energy crisis.

The Minister of Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti, described the approval of the budget as “mission accomplished”, where he affirmed that the package had won the confidence of the markets, the European institutions and, finally, Parliament.

Italian governments often resort to confidence votes to truncate the debate on the amendments and move the legislation forward. If such a vote is lost, the government must resign, but Meloni, with his large parliamentary majority, was not taking that risk.

A confidence vote was also used to force the budget through the Chamber of Deputies last week.

Opposition parties have accused the ruling right-wing coalition of not giving parliament enough time to review the bill, introduced by Meloni in November, a month after he took office.

The government disputes that it had no alternative because the national elections held in September drastically reduced the period used to prepare and debate the package.

Meloni lashed out at the financial institutions of the EU, where he asked the European Central Bank (ECB) to be more careful in the way he communicates, in addition to saying that the euro zone rescue fund is useless.