Like its predecessors, the right-wing Meloni government is also using tried and tested tricks to prevent unpopular changes to the expensive pension system – and to keep the retirement age low.
The passage of the Italian budget plan was a precision landing: only two days before the end of 2022, the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni brought the law through parliament. Since the right-wing government only took office at the end of October, the coalition only had two months to agree on what it would like to spend money on.
Meloni celebrates the punctual farewell as a success and does not say how much her plans fall short of her election promises. This is particularly noticeable when it comes to pensions: the right-wing coalition had promised reforms and wanted to do everything differently from previous governments. And since the government consists exclusively of right-wing parties, it really could have broken new ground on the key issue of pensions.