Who would have thought that the clumsy interventionism of the premier of Government right-center, Giorgia Melons 2.0, would end up captivating even the maximalist left of the Five stars and CGIL, not to mention Nicola's Italian Left Fratoianni and even of the pro-Schlein wing of the Pd? It's populism, honey, and you can't help it. It was enough to read the rain of mid-August interviews with the leader of the Five Stars, Giuseppe Tale, and the secretary of the CGIL, Maurizio The countryi on the bank surcharge to realize this. But on the same wavelength are the enthusiastic declarations made in recent days by the secretary of the Italian Left, Fratoianni, who after the mockery of patrimonial in the Chamber he prompted the most witty to talk about the Meloni-Fratoianni axis, and surprisingly about the economic manager of the Democratic Party, Antonio Misiani.
Meloni infects the Robin Hoods of Noantri: from Conte to Landini, from Fratoianni to part of the Democratic Party
After the reduction of the levy on the extra profits of the banks, decided in a hurry by the Government, the euphoria of the various souls of the maximalist left must have cooled down a bit but verba manent, words are stones and are such as to outline a neo-populist orientation on the left who identifies the enemy to beat in the extra profits of the companies (one day will someone explain how the extra profits are calculated?). Fratoianni had been among the first to rejoice and on 8 August he declared to Sky: “La tax on bank profits it's good and right, finally they too (from the Government) got there. If resources are needed, they must be taken from those who have accumulated huge profits on speculation and on the crisis of others. Now, however, a piece of advice: continue with the insurance, pharmaceutical industries, Those militar and those energy“. It is the same line supported yesterday in the press by Giuseppe Conte and Maurizio Landini who do not even remotely wonder what harmful effects the Fratoianni trend will have on Italy's credibility on the financial markets and how many further difficulties a country that has to finance its abnormal debt would encounter on the markets if it turns out to be unreliable. And if international investors run away or don't dare to venture into Italy, even for fun, it's no wonder.
Extra tax not only for banks: also insurance and military, energy, pharmaceutical industries under fire
The leader of the Five Stars even claimed the birthright of taxing the extra profits of the banks ("They followed our recipe but wrote it wrong") and added: "This logic (Ed of taxing the extra profits) should be extended to the war sector , energy, pharmaceutical and insurance”. Landini's orientation expressed in a cruder way in La Stampa is not very dissimilar: "If with the banks you want to indicate that there are no taboos, fine". For the secretary of the CGIL, however, the law is too watered down and risks freeing up "a small amount of resources". But what he is interested in highlighting and which is a prelude to the future maximalist thrust is that "it is not only the banks that have made extra profits" and thus the CGIL joins the Fratoianni-Conte trend and converts the pro-Schlein majority of the Democratic Party. After the former minister Andrea Orlando, it was the economic manager of the Democratic Party, Senator Antonio Misiani who praised the Republic of the extra tax on the "unjust margins" of the banks wanted by Giorgia Meloni in a decision and dirigiste version: "Better late than never. Melons copy Pedro Sanchez: in Spain this provision on banks was adopted in December 2022″, that is, in the middle of the electoral campaign. And it matters little that the Spanish extratax was the result of five months of close consultation with the social partners and that it is destined to fall if Sanchez fails to remain in government.
It is not enough that it was Meloni who threw away her incipient international credibility with the populist move on the banks, now the Robin Hood de Noantri party promises to make new converts and to expand to the left by welding the populist opposites from which Italy can just expect big trouble. The fight against inequality is sacrosanct and is a civil and moral imperative rather than an economic one, but it does not tolerate shortcuts. There are no free lunches, imaginary Robin Hoods.
