Premier Giorgia Meloni said Monday
that her government has no intention of backing down on a decree
designed to boost fuel-price transparency that has angered
Italy's gas-station operations and led them to call a 48-hour
strike for Wednesday and Thursday.
The decree includes an obligation for gas stations to give the
national average price for petrol and diesel alongside their own
prices in a bid to stop speculative hikes, with fines for those
that do not comply.
The gas-station associations said they were striking to protest
at being hit with a "wave of mud" over high prices after the
government ended a reduction in fuel duties at the turn of the
year.
"We called them (the gas-station associations) twice for talks,"
Meloni said during a visit to Algiers.
"The government has never conceived measures to point the finger
at gas-station operators but to recognise the value of the many
honest ones.
"The average showed that prices were not sky high. They were
very few speculative hikes.
"We couldn't go back on this measure, which is a good one.
Publishing the average price is sensible.
"No one wants to hit this group".
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