A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria #465 - The Ritual of the Budget (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Governments change, but budgets remain. They remain the same: a 
hodgepodge of cuts and incentives of various kinds, mostly for 
production, designed to meet the parameters of European austerity and 
maintain the political, institutional, and economic-social framework. 
Anyone who still thinks that the budget law can achieve a more equitable 
distribution of resources should accept it. There are other paths to 
follow to begin reducing the inequality that scandalizes everyone, but 
only in words.

Thus, displaying the usual charade, the parliamentary majority and 
opposition retort with all the prepackaged language they've been 
repeating for decades, consisting of small-scale agitations and minor 
media and parliamentary upheavals that, nevertheless, will continue to 
worsen the living conditions of millions of people and ensure the 
economic and political elites' continued control over society.

The tried-and-tested pattern repeats itself mechanically. If there are 
resources to be raised, then education, healthcare, and pensions are 
prime hunting grounds for dredging up the resources to fuel the arms 
industry, major projects, and permanently struggling industrialists, and 
to provide a welcome treat to this or that sector or category. In 
detail, as most commentators have recognized, the budget is a carbon 
copy of last year's, which already bore the Draghi stamp. Incidentally, 
it can be noted that this economic foresight, within the context of 
cutting social spending, by the Meloni government is greatly appreciated 
by the European and Italian establishment. Now, aside from the 
additional EUR2 billion in funding for the Strait of Messina bridge 
project, particularly sought after by Salvini's League, there has been a 
significant increase in military spending of EUR2 billion, for a total 
annual expenditure of EUR32 billion, of which EUR13 billion is for new 
armaments. As one of our distinguished, long-standing politicians, the 
Honorable Gasparri, proudly stated, declaring that if we want full 
granaries, we need to fill the arsenals. This shows a certain attention 
to the good things of the past: granaries! Healthcare, education, and 
pensions are suffering more or less disguised cuts and still have 
absolutely insufficient resources to adequately address their 
obligations. Regarding pensions, however, the government can boast of 
having increased the minimum pension-never mind if it's just three euros 
a month! But the solution is ready: push, as everyone has been doing for 
years, for supplementary pensions. In fact, a Northern League amendment 
establishes that one can retire at 64 if one is in the contributory 
system and if, by combining mandatory and supplementary pensions, one 
reaches a pension three times higher than the minimum, around 1,700 
euros: insurance companies and pension funds are grateful. After all, 
banks and insurance companies must be treated with respect; woe betide 
anyone who talks about taxation, they are politely asked. An article in 
Il Sole 24 Ore on December 23 announced the measures, which have been 
discussed for months, as follows: "The voluntary contribution to public 
coffers by banks and insurance companies, as envisaged in the budget, 
has increased over the past few months and amounts to EUR6.5 billion. 
The prospect of advancing liquidity to the State has been accepted by 
the sector given the possibility of recovering the funds in subsequent 
years. Essentially, it is an interest-free loan."

The fact that our tax system, in defiance of the usual Constitution, is 
shamelessly regressive no longer seems to shock anyone. Starting this 
year, the mechanism of only three tax rates has been established: 23% 
for incomes up to EUR28,000, 35% up to EUR50,000, and 43% for incomes 
above EUR50,000. It would be interesting to look at the historical 
series of tax rates from 1974 to today to understand how direct taxation 
has become increasingly favorable to the wealthy and penalizing the 
poorest. In fact, if in the second half of the 1970s there was a high 
and diversified number of tax brackets and the highest incomes were 
taxed up to 72%, to then drop to around 65% in the 1980s, in the years 
that followed up to today the rates have decreased, compacting the 
taxation downwards to the current 43% for incomes, as we have seen, over 
50 thousand euros[1]. A real robbery to the detriment of the middle and 
lower classes.

Amid the futile bickering over the budget, the social and economic 
picture is more dramatic than ever: soaring inequality (see the data 
collected annually by Oxfam); exponential growth in poverty (nearly six 
million people live in absolute poverty, 10% of the population); 
increasingly precarious and poorly paid jobs (which statistics disguise 
as increased employment, much to the delight of government officials); 
modest, if not imperceptible, GDP growth (despite the devastation and 
inequality wrought by the "religion of growth").

As has been the case every year for a long time, the "Sbilanciamoci!" 
(Let's Get Off Balance!) campaign is drafting a counter-budget 
diametrically opposed to that of the various governments in office. This 
year's budget, as summarized on their website, is "a zero-balance 
economic and financial counter-budget, with 102 proposals totaling over 
EUR54 billion to ensure justice, well-being, and sustainability for the 
country." These are perfectly common-sense proposals that divert 
resources from harmful things-wars, weapons, major projects, polluting 
industries-and divert them to services like schools, healthcare, 
pensions, while introducing modestly progressive taxes. Yet no 
government, right-wing or center-left, has ever taken this into account. 
Is there an answer to such deafness? It would be rather obvious to say 
that the reason is simple: the lack of a real and determined social 
mobilization that could force governments to change their political 
direction. But in times of calm and social resignation, everything seems 
beyond our strength, and it's not enough, as some have done, to raise 
the empty specter of revolt, emulating the verbose propaganda of 
maximalists of another era. If, then, we've reached this point, perhaps 
it might be more useful to reconnect the threads of a grassroots 
discourse that upholds certain principles: direct action by the lower 
classes, coherence between means and ends, autonomy of struggles: no 
compromise, no compromise.

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/2026/02/05/il-rito-della-finanziaria/
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