Tajani puts a damper on Giorgetti, saying no more 'pinch-ups' to banks.

It's not even officially open yet, but the perennial issue of banks is already shaking up the budget process. Forza Italia isn't entirely pleased with the "little pinch" that Giancarlo Giorgetti wants to give to banks, which have benefited from the drop in the spread and should now translate those benefits into aid for families.

"No blitzkrieg," warns Antonio Tajani, mindful of the comments on extra profits that heated up the summer debate on the budget law. There hasn't yet been a coalition meeting on the measures, and it likely won't be discussed until September.

But the ruling parties and the various ministries are already gearing up to line up their wishes. If necessary, even vetoes. And banks remain a hot topic. Announcements are one thing, "actions are another. We'll see if there are any," says Minister Tommaso Foti from the Brothers of Italy party, who, like Tajani, was a guest at the Rimini Meeting.

The Deputy Prime Minister, however, is blunt: "A country like ours cannot do without a strong banking system," so "no pinching." Instead, we need to "talk" with the banks. Avoid "hunting them down," because that would mean "hunting down the Italian industrial and entrepreneurial system."

In short, it's necessary to "avoid strange operations," which the Forza Italia party is already prepared to oppose, as it has already done. And the same goes for the pension funds of professionals, which "as long as Forza Italia is in government," will never be included in the INPS.

This project is currently not in the pipeline, while the pension plan is currently being considered for a reduction in the retirement age, which, without any intervention, would increase by three months in 2027. "I spoke to Giorgetti about it; he is willing to include the measure in the budget law," said Claudio Durigon, the League's Undersecretary for Labor, also at the CL meeting.

Furthermore, the League is effectively ready to abandon Quota 103, over which equally bitter battles were fought in recent years, because it has proven, as Durigon himself admits, to be "a suboptimal tool for exit flexibility." It is better instead to focus efforts on the so-called second pillar, "strengthening" through supplementary pensions the channel that allows access to early retirement at age 64 and 25 years of contributions, provided that the future benefit is at least three times the minimum pension.

Perhaps imagining that the same could be done not only for those who have transferred their severance pay to pension funds, but also for those who have left their severance pay with the company. "To have slightly stronger pensions," even for those who fall entirely within the contributory system, "we are considering proposing" the use of the "stationary severance pay at INPS," Durigon announces. On the tax front, he instead pushes for the League's flagship measure, the scrapping of tax bills.

"I'm not from the accounting department, but we'll do the math later," but even if "it costs two or three billion," Salvini's deputy assures, "we'll see the financial breakdown and how we can find these resources." Of course, it remains to be seen whether this project clashes with the idea—a flagship in this case of Forza Italia but also championed by Giorgia Meloni's party—of cutting taxes for the middle class. "Reducing the tax rate from 36% to 33% for incomes up to €60,000, I believe, is an achievable goal," says Marco Osnato, FdI's economic director.

All the projects expressed with "different sensitivities" by the coalition parties represent "highly worthy objectives," but perhaps "within the current legislative term," adds the Melonian, because otherwise "the path to achieving them is not always compatible with reality."