The willing suspension of disbelief: the contract for government and the budget

Bread or Circuses? Repoliticization in the Italian Populist Government Experience

“…Then, the formation of the government was delayed by the refusal of President Mattarella to approve the nomination of Paolo Savonaan anti-euro economistas the new economy and finance minister. The most significant constraints, however, came from the supervision of the European Commission (Codogno and Merler 2019;Fabbrini and Zgaga 2019). Technocracy therefore did not take the form the M5S had intended (i.e.…”

“…Arguably, even on these redistributive and material topics the importance of establishing a confrontational stance trumped the actual final bargaining outcome in the eyes of the M5S and League leadership (Fabbrini and Zgaga 2019). The final point of equilibrium thus was significantly closer to the EU's initial bargaining position than to Italy's stated budgetary goals, though with a considerable amount of deferring of hard choices (Codogno and Merler 2019), e.g. on how to avoid scheduled VAT increases.…”

Policy Polarisation in Italy: The Short and Conflictual Life of the ‘Government of Change’ (2018–2019)

“…The two aforementioned measures required a significant increase in current expenditure, and their implementation put the budget under stress, creating a conflict with the European Commission (Codogno & Merler 2019). The original draft of the budget law for 2019 submitted by the Italian government to the Commission (based on the assumption of a deficit of 2.4 per cent of GDP and of an overly optimistic growth rate for 2019) was a deliberate violation of the EU fiscal rules.…”

Policy Polarisation in Italy: The Short and Conflictual Life of the ‘Government of Change’ (2018–2019)

“…poverty' in Italy (La Repubblica 2018b). Interestingly, during the joint presentation of these measures to the Italian press on 18 January 2019, Salvini took the opportunity to blatantly distance himself from the citizenship income: while Conte and Di Maio struck a pose holding a sign with the two measures quota 100 and reddito di cittadinanza, Salvini showed a sign with no reference to the citizenship income.The two aforementioned measures required a significant increase in current expenditure, and their implementation put the budget under stress, creating a conflict with the European Commission(Codogno & Merler 2019). The original draft of the budget law for 2019 submitted by the Italian government to the Commission (based on the assumption of a deficit of 2.4 per cent of GDP and of an overly optimistic growth rate for 2019) was a deliberate violation of the EU fiscal rules.…”