Tag: Italy

Italy’s New Conservative Prime Minister Slams Door in Faces of Professional Welfare Recipients

I love me some Giorgia Meloni. No matter how much the Western media hates her, I love this gal. I’ll even go so far as that I wished she was ours.
But first, let it be known that I consider welfare, government payments (whatever you want to call it), certainly are needed.
Yet allow me to add the following; I understand and agree with the government having at least some type of financial security-net for those who’ve fallen on hard times through no fault of their own.
Sadly, more than a few look upon government assistance not as a temporary state, but as a life goal.
Enter Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In a breaking story, the PM has dropped a political bombshell aimed directly at Italy’s socialist-minded advocates and politicians.
As a favor to everyone, reporter Alessandra Scotto Di Santolo of Britain’s Express.co.uk breaks down things much better than I could ever hope (emphasis mine);

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni presented the government’s first economic policy initiatives Tuesday, announcing €21 billion in budget tweaks that would be used to help industry and families cope with soaring energy prices.

The Italian Prime Minister has announced a major overhaul of Italy’s economy signalling a shift from previous governments on state benefits. Giorgia Meloni’s plan includes a phase-out by the end of next year of the so-called “citizens’ wage,” the crowning achievement of the 5-Star Movement, which was in power from 2018-2021.

Ms Meloni had vowed to abolish the expanded welfare programme altogether during the campaign, arguing that it encouraged people to stay on welfare when they could work and was abused by fraudsters.

The changes announced on Tuesday would knock eligible workers out of the system after eight months or after they refuse a job offer, and requires recipients to actually live in Italy.

The overall budget modifications show a clear political shift, doing away with a basic income and a decade-old pension reform that Ms Meloni and her right-wing allies have long attacked while coming up with new measures to promote Italy’s perennially low birth rate.