FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Italy Finance Minister Tria Blasts EU Commission Deficit Proposal as ‘Suicide’

Nov. 13, 2018 (EIRNS)—Speaking on Nov. 9 after meetings with the EU Commission, Italian Finance Minister Giovanni Tria said that in order to avoid EU sanctions, “We would need a very violent fiscal restrictive measure, going to a 0.8% deficit to GDP ratio, which for a strongly slowing down economy would be a suicide.”

In a comment to RAI Agora magazine this morning, French economist Jean-Paul Fitoussi said the Italian government should remain “firm” in its commitments and not back down to EU Commission demands. The Italian plan for a 2.4% deficit is absolutely reasonable, Fitoussi insisted. Fiscal powers are the only powers left to national governments in the EU, and if these are taken them away, Brussels can shut down governments altogether, Fitoussi said polemically.

Meantime, real suicides have escalated in Italy, with 350 in the first six months of 2018—two a day. Many of them are for economic reasons: People losing their job or shop.