There is tension between the two
biggest parties supporting Premier Giuseppe Conte's government,
the 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the Democratic Party (PD), over
whether Italy should apply for funding from the European
Stability Mechanism in the wake of the coronavirus emergency.
The PD is in favour of taking up the option to obtain dozens of
billions of euros from the bailout fund at zero interest.
But the M5S is against this, fearful that use of the fund could
come with strings attached, even though the EU says there will
not be any as long as the money is used for health spending.
Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri, a PD member, has been trying
to mediate.
"We can examine all the pro and cons with the M5S experts when
the time is right," he said.
In an interview with Tuesday's edition of La Stampa, meanwhile,
Foreign Minister and M5S heavyweight Luigi Di Maio called for a
"profound fiscal reform starting from (income tax) IRPEF".
Di Maio also said that any reform would not affect the
'citizenship wage basic income that was one of the M5S's key
manifesto pledges.
On the use of the ESM, the head of the CIGL trade union, Italy's
biggest and most leftwing, Maurizio Landini, said "we cannot
squander this unrepeatable opportunity."
He said "it is also an opportunity to change Europe".
But one of the M5S's representatives on the Lower House finance
committee, Giovanni
Currò , said his party's opposition to using the bailout
mechanism did not stem from "stubborn ideological positions" but
from "serious economic arguments".
Currò said "those who say the ESM is an adequate instrument,
able to boost our country's economy, cannot be more wrong.
"The ESM is an inefficient, anachronistic and potentially
damaging tool".
The centre-right opposition is also against using the ESM for
fear it would put Italian taxpayers' savings at risk, according
to the leader of the largest opposition force, Matteo Salvini of
the nationalist and formerly regionalist League party.
On Tuesday he urged the government to put the ESM issue to a
debate in parliament "and we will see how parliament, which is
sovereign, decides".
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