Government Meloni, Bonomi: “Priority to energy and work, but not to break the accounts”

The priority facing the Meloni government is “energy, an emergency that we must face immediately”. This was stated by the president of Confindustria, Carlo Bonomi, on the sidelines of the general assembly of Federchimica in the Assolombarda headquarters. An intervention – he added – that must be “done within a framework of public finance, because we cannot break the state accounts”. Among the priorities also “the job emergency, because the slowdown in the economy that everyone now takes for granted places urgency on this issue”, said Bonomi who renewed Confindustria’s personal greetings to the new Prime Minister and to the new government. “First of all, it is a historic government, it is the first time for a woman as Prime Minister. As you know, however – added Bonomi – we do not judge people like Confindustria, we have never done so, we will judge the measures on the merits”. Bonomi then defined “an excellent choice to keep the former minister Cingolani as a consultant because it gives continuity to a delicate dossier like that of energy. We – he added – had always asked to have skills from the first day and this goes into the right direction”. Just answering a question on public accounts Bonomi explained that “if we were ultimately forced to act on public debt, it must be done because we are safeguarding the industry”. “We – emphasized Bonomi – look at the facts: the important rebounds in GDP that we had in 2021 and 2022 have allowed us to have a very important extra tax revenue, about 60 billion, which are the resources that have been used to buffer emergencies and not to undermine the decline in the deficit and public debt. With the slowdown in the economy we will no longer have these resources. Next year we must face the equalization of pensions at the cost of inflation, about 10 billion; the renewal of the public contract , we estimate 5 billion; and we must continue with the emergency measures, which are about 15-18 billion per quarter “. Since” we will no longer have those resources (the extra revenue, ed), we have two ways. and what we hope is that Europe will make Europe, a Europe that is based on sharing and solidarity. We have shared the interventions for the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, we are not doing solidarity with effects. And therefore the countries that have a higher public debt find themselves in a disadvantaged situation “.” Either Europe makes Europe or we – said Bonomi – we will be forced to intervene on our accounts, because we must safeguard the industry . Thousands of Italian companies and hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk, and therefore hundreds of thousands of household income. We cannot afford it “. The hope of the president of Confindustria is that” the budget law will begin to reconfigure public spending. We spend more than 1000 billion a year, reconfiguring 4-5% would make those resources available to us to be able to buffer and not act on public debt. But if we were ultimately forced to act on public debt, it must be done because we are safeguarding the industry “, concluded Bonomi.