Anticipate at least a first step of cutting the wedge already in the summer, to be consolidated in the autumn with the maneuver. But without resorting to a deviation. Mario Draghi has recently also made it clear to the OECD that citizens must be “protected” from the economic repercussions of the war in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. And the government is looking for the solution to put into practice this promise to support purchasing power, and therefore wages, from the price rush, with an intervention that could arrive in July, when most of the measures implemented so far against the price increases.
In short, the idea, which echoes in the Mef and Palazzo Chigi offices, would be to close the “bonus phase” and one-off measures as soon as possible, to pass, if there are margins, to a structural response. The details are still to be written and the extent of the intervention to be defined.
Also because substantial resources will also be needed to continue to calm the costs of gasoline and bills (1 billion is worth approximately every month the cut in excise duties, about 4 the elimination of system charges and other measures to contain the prices of electricity and gas for families and SMEs).
Draghi’s goal, on which he has strengthened the axis with French President Emmanuel Macron, is to obtain a European response, at least loans at reduced rates in times of rising spreads. A Sure 2 on which Italian diplomacy is trying to build consensus as well as on the gas price ceiling, also interpreted in an anti-inflation key.
The times, says a minister very close to Draghi, are “ripe” to carry out an initiative on the purchasing power of families and businesses, (and also pensions), taking care not to create “spirals” of price-wage run-up. And a cut in the wedge – on which an agreement with the social partners should in any case be sought – has found favor in recent weeks by almost all the political forces, in contrast, in the case of the center-right, to the minimum wage sponsored by the Democratic Party and the 5S. A little caution remains, because one year after the political elections, the risk of exploitation is always lurking. One solution, the compromise hypothesized by the deputy minister at Mef Laura Castelli, could be an exchange between cutting the wedge – which Confindustria has been asking for months – and increasing those wages that are still below a certain threshold (9 euros for example).
A reduction in the cost of labor for the last four months of the year is one of the evaluations on which those pushing for a cut in the wedge suffered, would not have very high costs. And to find the resources to make the measure structural (and also absorb the cut already in force until the end of the year), we would think about it with the Budget law. But when the maneuver opens, there will be other chapters to deal with, from tax cuts to pensions to prevent the Fornero law from being triggered in January. “It must be changed”, assures the Minister of Labor Andrea Orlando, building “flexibility in output” and distinguishing the strenuous jobs and family burdens. Another issue on which the table with the unions must be reopened as soon as possible.
Source: Ansa
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