The dossier Covid with the vaccination obligation for workers expected on January 5 in the Council of Ministers, he travels in parallel with that on the new one budget variance also asked by Parliament at the end of the year with the agenda presented by the Five Stars. For now, official figures do not turn out, the initial hypotheses continue to be around 7-10 billion. But the accounts on the need for a new deficit will also depend on the costs produced by the new decision on the Super Green Pass, which risks multiplying absences from work. But they won’t be done right away.
The decision can wait
The government, in fact, wants to take at least a few weeks before resuming the public finance balances. Also to understand the development of the epidemic curve now inflated by the variant Omicron.
“With the agenda, Parliament has given a clear signal – confirmed by the MEF Deputy Minister Laura Castles (M5S) -; now it is a question of assessing the needs in the coming weeks, also on the basis of the effects of the new measures arriving at work ”.
The League is also pressing on the new debt, linking the request for new funds above all to the need to intervene again against the cost of energy.
The theme unites the rest of the majority, including the Democratic Party. Not even Iv is holding back, though, with Luigi, the chairman of the Finance Committee of the House Marattin he warns that “it is rather strange to start thinking about the deficit again as soon as the budget law is approved. Sooner or later this country will have to get out of its dependence on the deficit. We reason, but on the basis of the real needs that will emerge ».
Leu’s position is similar: «It will be necessary to see the development of the pandemic – Federico Fornaro reflects -; if it is really needed we will be in favor, bearing in mind that on expensive energy we will have to look not only to businesses but also to the weakest sections of the population “.
The crux of the cost of bills
The bills node dominates the list of priorities that feed the pressure on the new deficit. But he is not alone. The umpteenth pandemic surge, even if it does not translate into new generalized restrictions on economic activity, hits hard the most exposed sectors, starting from tourism and discos and arcades, and also risks slowing down other trends of consumption with the multiplication of people in isolation. To the point that we are already beginning to openly hypothesize a new round of refreshments.
The repercussions on work
But now it is the issue of relapses on the job that appears heavily. The surge in infections, especially intense among the very young, repeats for many parents the problems related to absences from school that last year had determined the choice of the babysitter bonus. And the compulsory vaccination for work risks causing a significant number of absences at least initially; by inflating the already current problem of the absence of the fund created last year to protect “fragile” workers (396 million in 2021).
Municipalities also enter the list. Who see on the horizon an account close to 500 million for expensive energy, and are also asking to refinance the Tari discounts for economic activities in crisis. Without forgetting the 900 million that are needed to complete funding for urban regeneration projects.