ROME, Aug 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Italy’s next government must cut income taxes to boost consumption, relaunch investment and focus on health and education, the leader of the Democratic Party (PD) said after talks with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
Conte is looking to form a new coalition and is holding talks with all the parties.
The PD has said it will join forces with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement to create a new government under Conte, but they need to hammer out the details.
PD leader Nicola Zingaretti met Conte for roughly an hour, telling reporters afterwards that the taxes of low-to-middle income workers should be cut.
He also said the health service would need at least 10 billion euros ($11.14 billion) of investments in the next three years.
The anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), once bitter foes, agreed to govern in coalition in order to stave off snap elections in one of the largest economies in the EU.
The crisis was triggered on Aug 8 when popular far-right leader Matteo Salvini pulled his far-right League party out of the governing coalition with M5S, calling for fresh elections he thought would make him premier.
President Sergio Mattarella has been racing to find a solution to the political crisis, with Italy experiencing high debt levels and pressure to approve a budget in the coming months.
Without a new government, it could face an automatic rise in value-added tax that would hit the poorest families the hardest and could plunge the country into recession.
M5S chief Luigi Di Maio has said the deal with the PD will have to be approved by his party’s members in an online vote, which could take place by this weekend.
Investors and markets have welcomed the likely return to political stability in the eurozone’s third largest economy, with Italy’s 10-year bond yield falling to a record low yesterday.
Salvini said his party was confident it would win eventual new elections next year, saying “we’re in no hurry”. — NNN-AGENCIES
