Category Brussels

Nov 25 2022

Meloni Set to Abolish Italy’s Welfare State


Armstrong Economics Blog/Italy Re-Posted Nov 25, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Italy’s new PM Giorgia Meloni revealed her first economic initiatives with a budget of 21 billion euros. The Italian government will no longer provide free handouts to those who simply refuse to work. This should not be controversial.

For starters, anyone eligible for welfare must actually reside in Italy. Those capable of working will have eight months to find employment before their free paycheck runs out. Alternatively, if someone refuses a job, they will be excluded from receiving welfare. The 5-Star’s citizens’ wage will be abolished by next year as the system has been abused by many who simply do not want to work. They are reviewing the pension system as well, but it’s too late to save the pension funds.

Italy’s first female PM is also encouraging couples to start families amid a birth rate crisis. Women may take a sixth month of maternity leave and still receive 80% of their salary. Meloni cut taxes on goods for newborns and feminine hygiene. Couples will receive a 50% increase in the “baby bonus,” and families with over three children will receive more incentives. Italy needs future taxpayers.

Everyone cheered when America appointed its first female vice president, but Kamala Harris has done nothing for women who still pay the pink tax and do not have access to maternity leave. It is astonishing how controversial this move has become with the papers calling Meloni a Fascist dictator for preventing working taxpayers from paying for those unemployed by choice.

Sep 30 2022

Matteo Renzi Defends Rival Giorgia Meloni


Armstrong Economics Blog/Italy Re-Posted Sep 30, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The media is clearly in the wrong when politicians from the other end of the spectrum are coming out to condemn fake news. Former Italian PM Matteo Renzi (2014 to 2016) is putting his political views aside and defending newly-appointed PM Giorgia Meloni. Countless articles have compared her to Benito Mussolini, claiming she would bring fascism back to Italy. Renzi said that this is fake news.

Renzi took to CNN, a platform that immediately compared Meloni to the deceased fascist dictator, and defended her character. Renzi admitted that Meloni is his rival and that they will continue to fight in the political realm. “There is not a danger for Italian democracy,” Renzi said on CNN. “She’s my rival, I’m her rival, we will continue to fight each other, but the idea now that there is a risk of fascism in Italy is absolutely fake news.”

Renzi said that Italy has not changed its position on Russia and that NATO should not worry about any problems from Italy. Does the media recall what the Italians did to Mussolini in the end? They hung him and his mistress in the streets and brutalized their corpses. Italians certainly do not want a repeat of Mussolini’s fascist reign, nor do they want to give the government more control. They also do not want to give the EU control or abandon Italian culture for a melting pot of European values set forth by Brussels. Renzi is more in favor of the EU than Meloni but admits she is a sovereigntist, which is precisely why she is the new prime minister.