DW: Italy’s “attack” on the ECB after the interest rate hike

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The Meloni government believes that the ECB’s decision will put Italy in an even more difficult position, which is facing a problem in dealing with the energy crisis

Theodoros Andreadis Syngellakis, Rome

Rome criticizes the European Central Bank’s decision to raise interest rates, while Defense Minister Crozeto speaks of a reckless move.

The harshest was the comment of Matteo Salvini, Minister of Infrastructure and secretary of the League: “It leaves us stunned that, while our government is trying in every way to increase wages, pensions and reduce taxes, the European Central Bank in one afternoon , approves a decision which “burns” billions of savings in Italy and increases the spread”, he said characteristically. The Italian Minister of Defense and co-founder of Meloni’s Party, Guido Crosetto, added that “for those who did not understand, these are decisions that were taken and made public with lightness and distance from reality.”

Essentially, the Meloni government considers that this ECB decision will put Italy in an even more difficult position, which is facing a problem in dealing with the energy crisis. The state budget money, for now, only reaches until next March.

The validation of the EMS remains open

But the centrist foreign minister, Antonio Taiani of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, spoke with skepticism about the whole issue “In Europe, inflation is caused by the war in Ukraine and the cost of energy. For this reason, we have reservations about the European Central Bank’s decision to raise interest rates,” he said on RAI public radio.

Rome’s relationship with Brussels and Frankfurt is, after all, not as peaceful as it may have initially seemed, immediately after the Italian general elections in September. It is no coincidence, perhaps, that Italian Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti has announced that, in order for his country to decide whether to ratify the European Stability Mechanism, a broad parliamentary debate should first take place. It is Italy’s umpteenth postponement, and Crosetto does not hide that he considers this mechanism problematic.

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