Double split in a few hours in the government majority.
The amendment on the reduction of the Rai license fee was rejected with 12 against and 10 in favor, with Forza Italia voting against - together with the opposition - the decree that proposed to cut the tax from 90 to 70 euros this year too.
"We did not vote for an amendment that would have cut the Rai license fee by 20 euros because we considered it wrong and not useful for lowering the tax burden. We need to find 430 million from the budget to finance the Rai. With that money, on the other hand, we can really cut taxes ," explained Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking to journalists.
"There is no stumble" within the government, "we have always been consistent with what we have said", added Tajani.
A stumble instead that sources from Palazzo Chigi speak of: «The Government is strongly committed to supporting families and businesses, always operating within a framework of credibility and seriousness. The stumble of the majority on the issue of cutting the Rai license fee does not benefit anyone».
Meloni and Salvini: «No clash»
Officially downplays Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: "These are skirmishes. I don't see anything particularly serious," she said. And again: "If we've reached an agreement for a ceasefire in Lebanon, we can do it on the Rai license fee too."
Even for Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini "there is no conflict" : "We are working to lower taxes, the Rai license fee is one of these, but it is not our central activity - he claimed in an interview with Rtl 102.5 -. Lowering the cost of the license fee has always been an objective not of the League but of the center-right. Forza Italia does not want it? I feel sorry for the Italians. But if that is the case, we will work on other fronts".
Divided on healthcare too
A few hours later, the majority was again divided in the Senate Budget Committee on the amendment to the tax decree proposed by Forza Italia senator Claudio Lotito on healthcare in Calabria. The League abstained while FdI and FI were in favor: the votes in favor were therefore lacking to pass the proposed amendment. The government had deferred to the committee.
Schlein: «I'm in disarray»
The secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein pounces on the split: «Lega amendment rejected due to the votes of Forza Italia, which voted against it like the opposition. The majority is in pieces and the divisions are evident. They are in disarray, too busy arguing among themselves, competing instead of governing the country. And in the meantime they do not deal with health and wages, the concrete problems of Italians».
(Online Union)