It was May 2, 2007 and the Rizzoli publishing house was printing “La Casta. So the Italian politicians became untouchable” of the two journalists of the Corriere della Sera Gian Antonio Stella and Sergio Rizzo. The book retracted, chapter after chapter, a whole series of robberies, privileges and waste of Italian politics. The clamor was great, the success as well, with all the healing that derived from it in terms of raw material for justice and moralism that contributed to fueling the electoral thrusts that decreed the success of populist political movements. Not only the 5 Star Movement, but also the League of Matteo Salvini and that piece of the center -left, since a piece of the Democratic Party, passing through Italy of the values ​​and Sel. The synthesis of the populism of “La Casta” was as follows: politicians steal and waste public resources to the detriment of the poor innocent citizens. Today, in the post-pandemic era, on the eve of a new world order, close between the Russian-Ukraine war and the crazy mattanes of Donald Trump and the right techno of Musk, with China on the horizon as a new leading power and a Europe to be redone and to be remedied, it would take a second literary case with political background: “The Italian populist party. damage of the state coffers “. A book that puts black on Banco as much as the populist policy of the entire constitutional arch has done and is still doing damage to public finances. Describing a dynamic different from the simplistic one of Stella and Rizzo: the policy which, by virtue of its inadequacy and cialtroneria, to satisfy an electorate raised on bread and populism, deleted deleterious policy interventions for the state coffers and future generations.

The failure to apply the Bolkestein Directive: hundreds of millions of fines for infringement

We have four shining examples of populist politics which, to earn electoral consensus, dissipates public resources and creates huge budget holes. The first case is represented by the failure to apply the “Bolkestein” European directive which requires a series of rules in favor of free competition in the service sector. Italy, despite having implemented this directive in 2010, cannot give its actual application. And this by virtue of the fact that we are an essentially corporate country, in which it is impossible to open some economic sectors to the competition, such as that of taxis, street vendors and bathing. Ultimately, a transversal party, from right to left, for decades has avoided taking serious measures to open the three sectors that are in powerful lobbies (these yes real and influential and influential) that hold the Italian consumers, forced to pay higher prices for increasingly poor services, for the market, by means of calls for tenders and new concessions. Over the years, several political exponents, ministers and presidents of the Council have supported the failure to apply the Bolkestein Directive, decreeing a immobility that costs several millions of euros in Italy in fines to be paid to Europe by virtue of the infringement procedure. Therefore, the protection of taxi drivers, street vendors and bathing seasidery costs in terms of worst services and further public expenditure in fines to be paid to the Europe Commission. To date, from the institutional website of the Department for European Affairs it is learned that, in January of this year, the infringement procedures against our country are 64, of which 47 for violation of the Union law and 17 for failure to implement directives (among these, the Bolkestein Directive).

The 200 billion hole in the Superbonus 110%

The second example of populist policy that weighs on the state coffers is represented by the 110%bonus. A building incentive measure introduced on May 19, 2020 by the Conte II government who, in the beginning, had to serve to relaunch the building sector after the crisis period of the pandemic lockdown, but which has become, of extension in the extension, an almost structural measure, causing a huge budget hole equal to about 220 billion. With a whole corollary of scams and lack of checks by the state. An unscrewdness of economic policy that has marked and mark the destinies of our weighing for the decades to come. Expression of populist consocivism that unites almost all Italian parties, from right to left and with many of the politicians still today in vogue at various levels. From Giuseppe Conte, to the then Minister of Finance of the Conte II government who signed the wicked approval decree, up to the various leaders who today, at the head of the major parties, still defend its purpose. An “hymn to joy” of paternalist populism of the Italian political class for the benefit of a greedy electorate and not very far -sighted towards future generations. To decree its substantial failure was the sentence of the Court of Auditors of June 2022 which denounced its distorting effects on the free market. At the end of the accounts, the state spent 220 billion to redevelop the houses of 4% of Italians. A measure for the use and consumption of the most wealthy at all.

34 billion for citizenship income

The most ideological of wicked populist policy measures of the last two decades: citizenship income. The distinctive sign of the government’s experience of the 5 Star Movement well before there was the pro -Filorussian turning point of Giuseppe Conte (at the time the M5S moved on the Silk Road). It was the measure that made the then vice -premier Luigi Di Maio cheer “we abolished poverty!”, From the balcony of Palazzo Chigi, in one of the most plastic roads that recent politics can remember. Born as a passive policy measure mixed with an active (monthly check, with active work policy) has become a simple subsidy in force from January 2019 to January 2024, for a total of 34 billion euros, in the face of a small group of employed and an army of “navigator” – which should have made the demand and offer of work meet – who received a salary for about two years to do nothing. Around the citizenship income, the 5 Star Movement met the left in a wicked pace that confused the most bitter care with the care of the poorest classes. It was actually an alms of state that did not lead to any appreciable result.

The 6.6 billion hole in the excerpt of contribution credits

The fourth and last example, only in order of time – alas – is the ugly pasty of the hole of 6 and a half billion caused by the excerpt of contributory credits until 2015. In a nutshell: some companies have not paid the contributions due to their employees and the governments that have followed each other between 2018 and 2022 (Conte I and II, Draghi and Meloni), by virtue of three parliamentary measures promoted From the League of Matteo Salvini, they decreed to exceeding these sums which, therefore, must be found by the State in the coming years, in order to guarantee the service, or the payment of the pension due to the workers. Since these contributions, even if not paid by the employer, are still part of the contribution upright.

A book would be needed that tells all these “oversights” of politics (populist), with the complacency of that electorate so much loyal and inflexible in stigmatizing all the robberies of the political class, without however recognizing themselves of co -responsibility. Each of these wicked economic policy measures has contributed to impoverishing public coffers for the benefit of few citizens and detrimental to future generations. And the thing that does even more species is the political class of the Italian populist party (PPI – not to be confused with the Italian People’s Party of Don Luigi Sturzo) who, transversal from right to left, continues to ride the wave of popular indignation against, for example, of the European rearmament plan, stating that with those billions there could be many other things more useful and necessary for the country. When, on the other hand, necessary and more useful for the country it would be a real change of ruling class that puts an end to the fate of the PPI. That Italian populist party that today wears the peaceful and pro-Russian clothes. From right to left.