The newborn Letta government must already deal with the first obstacle. Immediately dividing the Pd-Pdl majority is the most controversial (and most electoral) issue of the last year of Italian politics: the Imu.
It was to light the fuse Dario Franceschini. In specifying the words pronounced yesterday by the Premier before the Chamber, the Minister for Relations with Parliament explained that the tax on real estate “will not be removed: there will be an extension for the June installment. We will then a cash problem for the Municipalities and there will also be the question of avoiding the VAT increase in the summer of 2013. We have just taken office, but next week we will launch a specific provision. In any case, it is our intention to avoid omnibus decree laws”.
In particular, "the government's first intervention will be the approval of the Def, accompanied by a resolution that will provide for changes based on the new programmatic resolutions", said the minister.
In turn, Franceschini's statements made a further clarification necessary. Graziano Delrio, Minister for Regional Affairs, took charge of it, clarifying that "the Imu will be suspended for the June installment with the commitment to lighten itespecially for the less well-off. The work will be carried out with Parliament: we cannot know the landing point”. The remodulation of the tax certainly implies "a liquidity problem for the Municipalities, which we will address".
With what resources? It's too soon to tell, but Delrio underlined that in any case "Italy will not be able to ask the European Commission to increase its 2013 debt. The important thing is to be able to obtain an exemption for strategic investments. And we need to identify which ones”. On the subject of Imu, Letta himself explained today that the first objective is to recover "time to work out an overall reform together".
The positions of the Democratic Party evidently contrast with those of the PDL, which has never spoken of a simple postponement. Among the eight points imposed by Silvio Berlusconi's party as a fundamental condition for participating in government, the one with the greatest specific weight provided for the abolition of the IMU on first homes and the repayment of the sums paid in 2012 by Italian taxpayers. A promise launched in the last stages of the last electoral campaign that today the Knight does not intend to give up.
“I am confident about both the abolition and the restitution – he reiterated today Berlusconi –. We would not support a government that does not implement these measures, nor would we support it from outside. We have made a commitment to the voters and we want to keep it”.
Meanwhile, however, a clear warning comes from Brussels: “The budget targets for Italy do not change a spokesperson for the European Commission – and the new government will have to say how it intends to meet them without new borrowing. We have taken note of Letta's declaration on the Imu, but it is too early to comment, we need to see the details of the measures that will be taken”.
