• Center-right summit: "common line" of Tajani, Salvini and Meloni on deviation
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July 29, 2020 The majority motion on the budget variance was approved by the Senate with 170 votes in favor, 4 against, abstention 133. The vote on the third variance requested by the government to face the crisis linked to the Covid pandemic 19 for a further 25 billion had to be expressed by an absolute majority of the members of the Senate, 160 votes. 

The opposition parties Lega, Fratelli d'Italia and Forza Italia had announced their abstention from voting. The resolution of the center-right was therefore precluded.

The budget variance
The resources will serve to cover the new dl of August with tax relief and extensions of the social safety nets for businesses and families. This is the third budgetary shift since the coronavirus pandemic began, after the 20 billion lire of the Italian Care Decree and the 55 billion lire decree.

The third request for an additional deficit of around 20 billion will be used to finance the summer maneuver which will not arrive before August. In addition, the government intends to use the budget variance to further remodel the tax payments expected for September, "significantly reducing the burden on taxpayers for 2020," said Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri.

The deviation should also serve for the Municipalities and to finance the extension of the stop to layoffs, expiring on 17 August, as well as the measures to start the new school year. The provision could also include measures on the extension of social safety nets and for the introduction of incentive mechanisms for hiring and decontribution. The extension of the non-compulsory reason for the renewal of the forward contracts after the first 12 months is also awaited.

Each EU member country is called upon to maintain its own medium-term target for public finance (OMT) defined specifically on the basis of the growth potential of the economy, the level of debt and implicit liabilities. With the Stability Pact, each state must maintain its medium-term objective for public finance or start a path towards the OMT. European norms allow the hypothesis of temporary deviations of the structural balance from the programmatic objective due to exceptional events, such as the Covid pandemic. To obtain the ok, a specific procedure must be activated which is basically the consultation of the Commission and the parliamentary approval. In the event that other exceptional events occur, a member country may request a budget variance again following the same procedure.

A first deviation, of 20 billion, had been approved by parliament to cover the measures of the dl Cura Italia. To put in place the Dl Relaunch, however, billions took 55 with the overcoming of the deficit to 10.4% of GDP. The difference over the following years aims to "definitively and completely eliminate the VAT and excise increases", to "support investments" and "constitutes a fundamental clean-up of the public budget" which will increase "the transparency and credibility of public finance" in addition to alleviating the "tax burden of 1.1 percentage points of GDP", explained Gualtieri on that occasion.