Wrong. They are, in fact, celebrating a “victory” regarding
the government’s decision to abolish a property tax, the “Imu”, introduced in
2011 by Monti’s technocrats.
This is a “victory” for Berlusconi because he actually based
his whole electoral campaign on the absurd promise to cancel, and even to pay
back, the Imu tax. His party has been
pressuring the government for months, threatening to withdraw their support, if
they did not abolish the Imu. PM Enrico Letta finally gave in.
And we saw plenty of tweets, statements, and any other sort of announcements celebrating
the success of The People of Freedom’s pledge. Angelino Alfano, party’s secretary,
tweeted: “Now the word “Imu” will disappear from dictionaries”.
What Berlusconi and his minions seem to have casually left
out is the fact that the Imu is far from disappearing. What actually happened
is that the government replaced Imu
with a “Service Tax”. Imu was a property tax; the Service Tax, which will
become law in 2014, is instead a tax levied by local authorities on the use of
local services, as the name itself explains. The Democratic Party called it a “federal
tax”, as the national government will not take blame if its revenue is not
spent efficiently. Since this a tax not on property but on services, also
tenants paying rent will be liable to pay for it.
But anyway, the fact that the actual word “Imu” will disappear is
enough to claim victory for The People of Freedom. And while they rejoice thinking of the
votes they might win back, the government still has no idea about how to tackle
the huge revenue gap (approximately €4bn) they are left with.
As the Financial Times accurately put it: “Il Cavaliere, as
ever, has played clever politics. But while he may claim victory against rivals, Italy is once again the loser”.
FT article "Rome's bad deal": http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3d1ada90-10a7-11e3-b5e4-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2dSfGkhMo