271. Italy: Bad Mark for the Budget
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| Giulio Tremonti: Minister of Economy and Finance (Italy) |
The much welcomed announcement in the previous days that in the new budget the drastic cuts to parliamentary expenditure would finally become a reality, is not going to happen at all. The Italian MPs are going to continue pilfering from the Italian tax payer exorbitant sums for their salary, pensions and privileges.
And before the anti-Berlusconians start drumming out their bunga bungas, let me inform them it was not Berluscnoni’s fault nor that of the Minister of Economy and Finance (Chancellor of the Exchequer), Giulio Tremonti, since they presented these cuts for approval in the next budget, due out this Autumn.
So what has happened? During the committee stage last week, these cuts were contested, the MPs did not want them included in the budget, and these MP’s are members of the present government. It is hard to say which MPs were against the cuts, Berlusconi’s own Party members, those from the Popolo della Libertà or from the coalition led by Umberto Bossi, the Lega Nord.
If the Chancellor Giulio Tremonti presented the cuts, it is obvious that he informed his own Party members of his intentions before hand, therefore, at a guess those who opposed such cuts are more likely to come from the coalition, Bossi’s party, the Lega Nord. And if the coalition was not going to vote for the budget, in Autumn, it would have meant the end of this government there and then.
And so the Italian MPs will continue to rob the tax payer by “earning” twice and half as much as a British MP; he/she will have a golden pension of five times the amount of an average Italian pensioner, or ten times that amount of those pensioners, who like me, get the lowest amount- but wait for it- this pension, the Italian MP will receive only after less than two years “serving” as a Member of Parliament, unlike us peons who must work twenty years to get the lowest pension or forty years to get an average pension.
Did I tell you about the privileges? Just to give you an idea: a British MP can claim taxi reimbursement for travelling only after midnight- the Italian MP gets this all year round and all around the clock, or they are supplied with the famous “auto blue” car and chauffer, free air and train transport, expenses refunds, free medics, subsidized meals and housing and if one forfeits these rights they are given a “supplementary” benefit equal to what they have given up which run into thousands and thousands of Euros in extras... a system that other European MP’s only dream about.
Do you not think, as an Italian citizen, or even any other European citizen, this is cause for anger? The tax payer is continuously being robbed by these pilfering MPs and yet where is the OPPOSITION??? When this news came out last week, that there would be no parliamentary expenditure cuts, there was complete silence from the Opposition... complete silence from the anti- Berlusconian national and international press... Obviously, the Italian parliamentary Opposition are all in favour of aiding and abetting their pilfering of the Italian taxpayer.
Why is it that the Italian Opposition, the anti-Berlusconian press, national and international only make a fuss when they can bang on their ridiculous bunga bunga drums and not when it comes to knocking their own Status Quo?
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