The Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, affirmed this Monday that the new tax on banks for extraordinary profits approved by her Government was her idea and that "she would do it again" despite the reaction of the markets, which suffered a loss of 9,000 million euros for banking entities on the Milan Stock Exchange.
Italian politics is now responsible for the rate after a busy week, in which, after the announcement of the measure, it took a day to pronounce itself. "Of course I would do it again, it is a decision that I made because I believe that a message should be sent regarding the idea of a just state, which does the things that must be done," the far-right leader responded in a interview given to the three most important daily newspapers in Italy, La Stampa, Il Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica.
The forecast is to raise some 2,500-3,000 million euros with the measure, for up to 5,000 million that were initially expected before introducing limitations.
In addition, Meloni has denied that the measure is typical of a socialist executive and assured that "those who speak of socialism have a distorted conception of the free market." "I don't remember the Socialists collecting taxes from the banks, only the Socialists giving public money to the banks," she added without mentioning that the Spanish government approved a similar rate a few months ago.
The announcement of the tax, on Monday night after a Council of Ministers, caused a collapse in the European markets on Tuesday with the Milan stock market as the most affected.
"It is easier to intervene in a measure like this if the news does not spread too much, so I assume political responsibility," she replied when asked about the statements by Vice President Antonio Tajani, of the conservative Forza Italia party, who hinted at his disagreement with the way in which the approval was generated.
The news was followed by a series of chaotic communications that gradually refined the details.
According to the latest version, the rule will be activated if the interest margin registered in 2022 "exceeds the value of the 2021 financial year by at least 5%", a percentage that will rise to 10% if 2023 is compared with the previous year. In the first draft released, these percentages were 3% and 6%.
The chaos in the markets then led the Economy Ministry to restrict the scope of the tax on Tuesday night, which will have a limit that in no case will exceed 0.1% of the entity's total assets.
"This is a very particular and delicate matter in which I have assumed responsibility", he has ruled before assuring that the measure has the support of the Minister of Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti, despite the fact that some media insinuated that he did not appear to explain the tax since I was not totally in agreement. The prime minister has said that she was informed of the decision.
Meloni has not skimped on criticism either by ensuring that the banking system "rushed" to raise mortgage rates but left deposit rates "unchanged", which has created "a distortion".
"I have the utmost respect for the banking system and I have no intention of harming the banks. But there was an imbalance. With the substantial and prolonged rise in rates by the European Central Bank, there is a risk of penalizing households and companies" , has added.
For the moment, the banking associations remain silent and have avoided speaking out while their shares have recovered in recent days following the clarification from the Ministry of Economy.
