Analysis: One year on Italian voters disappointed with Giorgia Meloni's three speed government
MOURAD ROUIGHI
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26 September 2023
ROME -- A year ago Italy's right-wing coalition won the elections, allowing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to form a government, full of dreams and promises. It is evidently a three-speed government, based on the alliance between Ms Meloni's 'post-Fascist' Brothers of Italy, a rudderless Forza Italia after the death of its founder the media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, and the Northern League whose populist leader, self-styled Christian Matteo Salvini, finds it hard to conceal his jealousy of Ms Meloni's occupying Palazzo Chigi.
The first results have arrived, a year later and are more disappointing than could have been expected, the cost of public debt is growing again and immigration is not slowing down. Growth has slowed, sending the debt-to-GDP ratio soaring, and interest rates have risen to keep inflation in check.
And according to the latest reports, it seems that the current situation will only get worse. This is because inflation will continue to decline and the cost of refinancing debt will continue to increase. European recommendations will once again increase spending and the Pnrr could prove to be a wasted opportunity to try to make the country a little more modern. In the future the spread could start to rise again and this could once again alert Europe and the markets.
That's why many voters are disappointed by all the promises that have not been kept and by a communication that they perceive as misleading and often illusory.
Ms Meloni does not accept this gloomy picture, and reiterates that after a year she is still confident and is at peace with her conscience, Italy is giving encouraging signs and is respected internationally.
Italy has strengthened its axis with its American ally and staunchly supports Ukraine in its war against Russia within NATO. The Mattei Plan, intended to give substance to the partnership with Africa, is in its infancy, but the prime minister is convinced that the path is the right one to open a new page and a chapter of hope, with a continent so rich but so far behind in the situation of the world economy.
The opposition, however, points out that the balance of this first year is highly negative, the economy slows down, the debt increases and there is a lack of money from the PNRR which should have relaunched a system that is strongly affected by the post-pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
According to Giuseppe Conte of the Five Star Movement and Elly Schlein, its main political opponents, the government is moving forward with improvised and unrealistic attempts to avoid taking money out of the pockets of families and small businesses already burdened by very difficult years.
Short-term solutions, which according to the opposition hide a certain political fragility and the fear of displeasing the electorate, already disappointed by the lack of action on migrants and by the increase in the price of petrol and food products.
The second year, which began Tuesday, will better indicate Giorgia Meloni's political horizon.
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