After the denials, the reassurances and even the anathemas (“I demonize the idea”, Schifani said no more than three days ago), the Government finally uttered the magic word that everyone expected: trust. At 18 the Council of Ministers will meet to authorize the armoring of the maneuver bis. Meanwhile, a majority meeting has ended in Palazzo Grazioli in which the latest changes to be made to the text have been established. Here they are: increase in the ordinary VAT rate from 20 to 21%, solidarity contribution with a 3% rate for incomes exceeding 300 thousand euros per year, adjustment of women's pensions in the private sector starting from 2014. The departure is also foreseen sprint of the constitutional bill for the abolition of the provinces and the inclusion in the Charter of the obligatory balanced budget.
With the decision to resort to confidence, the big step towards avoiding the lengthy parliamentary debate has been taken. But the game is still to be played in the last few hours. The conference of group leaders has established that the final vote in the Senate will take place tomorrow, not Saturday. The meeting of the ECB board scheduled for Thursday weighs on this decision. There is a strong fear that in Frankfurt they may decide to interrupt the purchase of our government bonds, or at least to set a deadline.
A race against time that made the use of trust predictable. Especially since the amendments presented to the maneuver are more than 350. On the other hand, it was also inevitable that the Government would intervene with some modifications in the Cesarini area, above all after the recall arrived yesterday from President Napolitano to "more effective and credible measures". And in the whirlwind of hypotheses that are born, die and rise again every day, today two evergreens are officially back on the agenda, destined to merge into a maxi-amendment: the increase in VAT and the solidarity contribution.
The former has been at the top of the Knight's wishes for weeks, and in the end it seems to have prevailed over the Tremontian resistance. The superminister of the Economy has always opposed the intervention, considering the adjustment of the value added tax as a jewel to be kept for the lean times of the fiscal delegation. Far more sensational is the rehabilitation of the supertax, the anti-liberal demon that made the premier's heart "bleed". Even in this case, however, the provision is very different from the one included in the mid-August decree, targeting the wealthiest Italians rather than the dependent middle class. It remains to be seen whether all of this will truly become law and above all whether it will be sufficient to reassure the markets and Europe.
