The Plastic tax, which was born with the new budget maneuver, arrives only tomorrow in Parliament but it already makes the Government tremble and even more the Pd of Emilia Romagna. It makes the Government tremble because Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva promises sparks to the Chambers to abolish it or at least correct it and it makes the Democratic Party and the Giunta Bonaccini tremble in Emilia and Romagna because the unions and businesses do not like it and precisely in that region, which goes to elections in January, there is the packaging district that sees the Plastic tax as the smoke and mirrors. “With the Plastic tax – the industrialists protest – they are destroying a sector worth 5 billion”.
But it's just impossible to argue a plastic-free ecological breakthrough reconciling it with the rights of businesses, workers and consumers? This is the political challenge awaiting Parliament and which can cause fibrillation in the Government and in the majority if, instead of carrying out an examination of the merits of the measure, the usual ideological crusades are chosen.
But what is the Plastic tax? It is a new tax, on which the Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri himself has expressed perplexity but which the Five Stars have imposed, which provides for the levy of one euro per kilogram on all disposable products that contain plastic (from bottles to trays, from bags to tetrapak containers, from films to labels) except for syringes and which from April 2020 will have to be paid quarterly by all companies that produce goods that contain plastic or that import it. That's why companies oppose it but that's why the trade unions don't like it either, who fear negative repercussions on jobs and on the prices of products paid by consumers. It is estimated that the Plastic tax, according to what Federconsumatori claims, could cost each citizen 180 euros a year.
Matteo Renzi, although without any intention of bringing down the government, is leading the parliamentary battle against the current Plastic tax. “It's a blow to the middle class”, argued the leader of Italia Viva sul Messaggero, who promised amendments to the law in question in the budget maneuver.
But Renzi's fears are also those of Governor of Emilia Romagna, Stefano Bonaccini of the Pd, which is preparing to lead a pitched battle to defend the Red Region from the assault of the League in the upcoming January elections, which could decide the fate of the Conte government itself. "We are sharing our plastic-free regional plan - explains Bonaccini - with companies in the sector, studying compensation mechanisms and incentives that do not damage the sector, for an absolutely necessary ecological change but which must not affect companies and work".
Bonaccini, to whom Renzi has already guaranteed his support in the next regional elections, is diplomatic even if furious, but in the Emilia-Romagna Democratic Party they do not hide their fear of the electorally disastrous effects that the Plastic tax can have on the January vote: “With that tax you lose here” executives and militants of the Emilia-Romagna Democratic Party say without too many words. For now, the secretary of the Democratic Party Nicola Zingaretti is silent
But it won't be easy to get everyone to agree, because a large part of the Democratic Party - led by the deputy secretary Andrea Orlando, who has a good chance of becoming the champion of lost causes -, the Greens and Leu are clearly in favor of the Plastic Tax. Parliament will decide but sparks will fly in the coming days, unless, as it seems, the healthy pragmatism of Economy Minister Gualtieri prevails, who does not rule out postponing the Plastic tax by one year, offsetting the revenue with alternative measures and who has already received the applause of Matteo Renzi
